Category Archives: Writing

Greatest Hits from the 2024 Flathead River Writers Conference Part 1

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2024 Flathead Writers Conference
Photo credit: David Snyder

by Debbie Burke

@burke_writer

The 34th Flathead River Writers Conference was October 5-6, 2024. The conference is always good, but this year was stellar with superb speakers and enthusiastic interaction among attendees.

As I drafted this post from my notes, it kept growing with more information that needed to be included. As a result, it ran way too long for a single post. So I’m dividing it into two. Today is Part 1 of the greatest hits from the event. Part 2 will follow in a couple of weeks.

~~~

Debra Magpie Earling

Debra Magpie Earling (Native-American author of The Lost Journals of Sacajawea and Perma Red) gave the moving keynote which set the tone that continued through the entire weekend.

Debra opened with a description of “wonder”, which she defined as “surprise mingled with admiration.” She went on to tell a story of wonder about the last Christmas she spent with her dying mother. On a peaceful Montana night, she described their visit as like “being inside a snow globe.”

Her mother said, “When I die, I’ll send you a sign. A hummingbird.” Debra went along with her mom but had her doubts. After all, hummingbirds are common at her home during summer so how would she ever know which one was the sign?

Nevertheless, after her mother passed, the following spring Debra set up many feeders and waited.

It was a strange summer. Other bird species came and went. Crows sat on the feeders. But not a single hummingbird appeared.

On the evening of her mother’s birthday in July, Debra and her husband were sitting outside and Debra said, “Well, I guess she didn’t send the sign.”

At that moment, the only hummingbird of the year appeared. It flew to Debra’s forehead and hovered for a few minutes then left.

Debra and her husband asked each other, “Did you see that? Is that what I think it was?”

With that anecdote, she summed up the magical wonder of storytelling, the conference theme.

While talking about where inspiration comes from, Debra said, “The muse is a lot of dead people who want their stories told.”

That sentence sent chills through me. Recently I’ve considered writing historical fiction. Did Debra send me a sign that it’s time to explore the past?

~~~

Danica Winters

Million-selling Harlequin romantic suspense novelist Danica Winters told the audience, “This is not your grandmother’s bodice ripper.” Romance sales account for an astounding $1.4 billion each year.

Today’s variations are limitless: contemporary, historical, erotica, Young Adult, thriller/suspense, LGBTQ+, dark romance, paranormal, holiday, fantasy/romantasy. Even serious social issues like human trafficking find their way into romances.

Why are they so popular? Danica believes, “They are everyone’s escape. They bring joy and make people laugh. Romance is a promise. We writers are entertainers.”

Danica sells many more paperbacks than ebooks, unlike other genres where ebooks dominate. She added an interesting market detail: When Walmart changed its shelving to hold 6″ by 9″ books, that prompted publishers to shift book production to that same size because Walmart is such a huge market.

While most romance readers are women, Danica said about 20% are men, often in law enforcement and the military. Turns out even alpha males like escape, too.

~~~

Leslie Budewitz

Three-time Agatha winner Leslie Budewitz focused on crime fiction with an excellent summation of differences within the genre.

  • Mystery is “What Happened?”
  • Suspense is “What’s Happening?”
  • Thriller is “What Might Happen?”

Leslie has her finger on the pulse of the cozy market and talked about shifts within the genre, including a new trend of millennial cozies that include some swearing and adult language.

For a cozy, the semiofficial acceptable body count is three. So far, Leslie has only had two murders in one book.

With 19 published books, Leslie must keep track of two amateur sleuth series and multiple standalone suspense novels. She developed an ingenious system to avoid repetition of plots and characters. For each book, she creates a spreadsheet with the following headings:

Victim              Killer/Method             Suspects          Motive            VGR

What is VGR? The Very Good Reason why the amateur sleuth gets involved in a crime.

~~~

Kathy Dunnehoff

Only a truly gifted writing teacher can make grammar entertaining. That describes longtime college instructor Kathy Dunnehoff, author of bestselling romantic comedies and screenplays.

Kathy offered nuts and bolts hacks to improve writing productivity.

  • Measure your success by what you control, not by factors outside your control. Success is the number of words you produce.
  • Use a writing calendar to track production either by word count or minutes…as long as that time is spent actually writing. Watching goat yoga or doomscrolling doesn’t count.
  • When you don’t write, record your excuse in the calendar. Talk about making yourself accountable!
  • Recognize procrastination in its many disguises: research, reorganizing your office, talking about writing rather that writing, etc.
  • When revising, try the “Frankenstein Method” (from Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat Writes a Novel): Start a new document for the second draft, then copy and paste sections from the first draft.
  • There is no extra credit for suffering!

~~~

On Saturday evening, our local indie shop, the BookShelf, hosted a reception for conference attendees and speakers. Gather a bunch of writers in a bookstore and we’re more excited than dogs at the dog park. Even though people mock-complained their brains were overloaded and they were exhausted, no one wanted to leave. All that creative energy kept us buoyed and eager for the following day.

Come back here in two weeks for Part 2 of the Greatest Hits from the Flathead River Writers Conference. Highlights include freelance article writing, side hustles to supplement income from book sales, anatomy of a publicity campaign, and 16 questions an agent asks when assessing a manuscript.

~~~

TKZers: Do any of the ideas mentioned resonate with you? What is your favorite productivity hack?

~~~

Conferences are also a good venue to sell books and I did!

Fruit of the Poisonous Tree, Cover by Brian Hoffman

 

 

Please check out my latest thriller Fruit of the Poisonous Tree at this link.

Characters: Round and Flat

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“You can never know enough about your characters.” —W. Somerset Maugham

* * *

In his work Aspects of the Novel, E.M. Forster introduced the concept of round and flat characters (i.e., three-dimensional and two-dimensional.)

Round Characters

Basically, round characters are defined by their complexity. They are likely to have complicated personalities and wrestle with life’s issues.

According to masterclass.com,

“A round character is deep and layered character in a story. Round characters are interesting to audiences because they feel like real people; audiences often feel invested in these characters’ goals, successes, failures, strengths, and weaknesses.”

Characters cited as examples of roundness are Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and Huck Finn in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Forster says most Russian novels are filled with round characters. He believed all the principal characters in War and Peace and all of Dostoevsky’s characters are round. Russian authors are apparently fond of complexity.

When we discuss characterization on TKZ, we often talk about adding complexity to our characters, whether they’re major or minor. We want multi-dimensional characters that engage the reader. But according to Forster, the use of flat characters can be very effective as well.

Flat Characters

For example, here’s an excerpt about flat characters from Aspects of the Novel:

“In their purest form, they are constructed round a single idea or quality: when there is more than one factor in them, we get the beginning of the curve towards the round.”

Forster goes on to explain that flat characters are easily recognized and easily remembered by whatever one quality defines them.

Flat characters are often humorous, and readers have a certain comfort in knowing the flat character won’t change over the course of the story. Their singular quality will remain intact. The bumbling sidekick is one such character. He breaks the tension in the story, and you know he’ll trip and fall into a mud puddle or spill coffee in someone’s lap whenever he appears.

Flat characters can often be summed up in one sentence. For example, in his audio course “Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques,” James Hynes defined Huckleberry Finn’s father, Pap Finn, as flat. Pap could easily be described as “a mean drunk.”

Although we think of flatness mostly in terms of minor characters, major characters can also be flat. Forster cites the author Charles Dickens as a case in point.

“The case of Dickens is significant. Dickens’ people are nearly all flat…. Part of the genius of Dickens is that he does use types and caricatures, people whom we recognize the instant they re-enter, and yet achieves effects that are not mechanical and a vision of humanity that is not shallow.”

In his lecture, James Hynes also mentioned Sherlock Holmes as an example of a main character who is flat. Holmes rarely changes in Doyle’s novels. He’s always the perfect human automaton who solves crimes by his amazing powers of deduction. Yet Holmes was such a wildly popular main character that when Sir Arthur killed him off, the public outcry was so loud, he had to find a way to bring Holmes back for future books.

* * *

But whether your characters are round or flat,

“Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.”—Ray Bradbury

* * *

So TKZers: What fictional characters would you describe as round or flat? How about characters in your novels?

 

Private pilot Cassie Deakin struggles with her distrust of Deputy Frank White when she has to team up with him to solve a murder mystery.

Available at  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, or Apple Books.

Reader Friday-Cast Away!

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If you’ve seen Cast Away starring the mega-talented actor, Tom Hanks, you have a Hollywood-ese thumbnail portrait of what it’d be like to be stranded on a deserted island with Wilson. Yeah, you got it . . . a volleyball.

Wilson

But, how many times have we been asked who in all the world we’d like to be stranded with–meaning a person, of course. Answers we’ve given (or received) range from Moses to Einstein to Betty Grable and everyone in between.

 

Today, I’d like to flip that question around–just for fun. That’s what Fridays are all about here at TKZ, right?

 

Drum roll, please!

Who is the one person you would NOT want to be stranded with, not for all the tea in anywhere?

I’ll start. And maybe I’m cheating a bit, but here goes:

No one who has politician listed on his or her resume` . . . no way, no how. I’d rather be with a volleyball.

Did I steal anyone’s thunder? #sorrynotsorry…

Your turn!

 

What the Book Industry Will Look Like a Decade from Now

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I follow a Substack hosted by Ted Gioia (pronounced Joy-yah). Ted is a thought leader who’s been around fifty working years. Primarily, he’s in the music industry as a performer, composer, and critic. However, Ted Gioia is an exceptional writer with an amazing ability to grasp complex subjects and clearly break them into comprehensible components.

A few days ago, Ted published a Substack article titled My 9 Predictions: What the Music Industry Will Look Like a Decade from Now. Here’s an infograph outlining his predictions.

I read his article several times, and it struck me the same thing goes with the book industry. It’s a close parallel, for sure. It got me thinking to take the infograph and substitute words. Replace:

Record labels and music companies with book publishers.

Artists and musicians with writers.

Music and playlists with books.

Music industry with book publisher.

Listeners with readers.

Live music with print books.

Come to think of it, these 9 predictions about books could have been made a decade ago and are realizing now.

Kill Zoners — Thoughts? Comments?

Hi, there. Remember me?

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My name’s John and I’m a writer.
Group: “Hi, John.”
I know I have not been a reliable Killzone blogger these past few weeks, and I apologize for that. Sometimes, life gets complicated, and, well, you know. Why complications seem to cluster on Tuesdays when I’m supposed to be writing my Killzone blog baffles me a little, but apparently not enough to make me change my dawdling ways.
Thank you to those who have reached out with concerns about my health. I assure you that I am fine, and that all the complications have been logistical, and not always negative. Two weeks ago, for example, I actually had a post written and ready to go, but, well, here’s what I wrote at the time:
As I write this, I have just returned from a wonderful trip to Denver to teach at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers conference. On Sunday, a car picked me up at the hotel at 5:40 a.m. to get me to the airport in time for an 8 a.m. flight that allowed me to get home by 4 p.m.
That gave me just enough time to grab a night’s sleep, dump the suitcase and refill it for a Monday departure to Paris, where I now sit in the kitchen of a quaint little apartment on Rue de Princesse. We’re here to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in the company of our dear friends Reavis and Shana Wortham.
In a first-ever move, I decided to leave my computer at home for this trip, depending instead on my Samsung pad to do the work of the computer. With that decision comes the problem of not knowing how to sign into the WordPress account to post this blog. It’s now a little after 9 a.m. Paris time—3 a.m. Eastern time. If your’e reading this on October 2, you’ll know that I somehow solved the riddle. If not, well, I guess I’m kind of wasting my time.
Anyway, to the writerly point of this post. While at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers conference this weekend, after I taught my class on Friday, my reason for staying over for the rest of the weekend was to perform six “blue pencil” sessions with unpublished writers, which were essentially critiques of cold readings of up to five pages of their manuscripts. These are sessions for which the volunteers paid extra. Inexplicably, three of the six turned out to be no-shows, leaving me with a great deal of unassigned time.
I hadn’t brought my computer with me for those sessions, either. But I had brought old school pen and paper, and was shocked at the amount of work I was able to turn out on the opening pages of the new Jonathan Grave book that’s not due till April 15, 2025. I’m talking 30 pages. And in re-reading them, they’re pretty good.
I’ve long believed that writing by hand releases a different level of creativity than one gets by writing on the keyboard. And when you do it in a public place—like the bar of a hotel lobby—it can be quite the conversation starter.
Case in point: The night before I left for Denver to attend RMFW, I stayed at the Dulles Airport Marriott to catch the early flight out, and as is my wont while traveling alone, I ate dinner at the bar and amused myself by writing away on the Grave book with paper and pen. I get in a zone while writing, so I was a bit startled when a lady behind me said, “Fountain pen in a leather bound book. You must be a novelist.” Frankly, that’s a big logical leap, if you aske me, but perhaps she’d been reading the content. In any case, it turned out that this lady runs a writers conference, and discussion turned to my participation in a future event. Life is funny sometimes.
Takeaway lesson: Never let technology get in the way of creativity.

Research, and Fun

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When you read this, the Bride and I are with Joy and John Gilstrap in France. I hope I can get an idea to use in a novel and write this trip off. John might. He has a history of visit different places and setting his Jonathan Grave books there.

Much of my travel within the states is for research. The Bride and I have visited Alpine, Texas, and the Big Bend region several times, and each of those trips provided settings and information that wound up in all four of my Sonny Hawke thrillers.

I’ve been up and down the Rio Grande and Red River here in Texas, to get an idea of what the world looks like on both sides of the borders. We’ve been through East Texas, in order to see the country I planned to write about and that trip also showed up in a Sonny Hawke thriller.

Within the next month or two, we’re heading up into Eastern Oklahoma to see where the Comanches lived, and to visit a number of sites I’ve read about. Most of that will be go into the western horror series I’m working on.

A year ago, Joy and John Gilstrap came to Texas and we took them down through Fredericksburg where Germans settled and brought their culture to the developing territory over 150 years ago. From there, we traveled down into the Big Bend region to soak up Marfa, Alpine, and Marathon. It wasn’t a surprise when parts of John’s Zero Sum were set in that hot, dry country.

Besides that, I believe he also mentioned the heat, and flies, something an armchair researcher might miss. Especially the flies.

The purpose of all this is to urge writers to get out and see the world, then use what you’ve discovered to flavor your books.

It doesn’t have to be international travel. This is the first time we’ve been across the Pond, but we’ve been to Mexico and Canada, and those memories are right there, waiting to be plucked out and used in a novel someday.

Will I set a novel in Paris, Normandy, or the Champagne region? I doubt it, but maybe someone I’ve met there will spark a character, or a benign incident on a train can be reimagined as a thrilling scene.

Just think. Texan. Hat. Barn coat. Lucchese boots. France.

Mix well. Maybe it’ll fizz over.

I’m sure John will come back with ideas of his own, and the stories will unfold.

Decades ago, Bill Fries and Chip Davis wrote a spoken song that was recorded by C.W. McCall (he recorded Convoy). Since I’m short of time and packing for the trip, I’m posting this fine piece of writing entitled Aurora Borealis. I wish it was mine.

“One night, many, many summers ago we were camped at twelve thousand feet up where the air is still clear, high in Rockies at Lost Lake, Colorado. And as the fire down burned low and only a few glowing coals remained, we laid on our backs all warm in our sleeping bags and looked up at the stars.

“And as I felt myself falling out into the vastness of the Universe, I thought about things. I thought about the time my grandma told me what to say when you saw the evening star. You all remember:

Star light, star bright, first star I’ve seen tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.

“The air is crystal-clean up there; that’s why you can see a million stars, spread out across the sky, almost like a gigantic cloud.

“I remember another night, in the black canyon of the Gunnison River. And we had our rubber boats pulled up on the bank an’ turned over so we could sleep on ’em. And we were layin’ there lookin’ up at the stars that night, too, and one of the guys from New York said, he said, “Hey! Look at all that smog in the sky! Smog clear out here in the sticks!” And somebody said, “Hey, Joe, that’s not smog; that’s the Milky Way. It’s a hundred billion stars. It’s our galaxy.”

“And we saw the Northern Lights up there once, on the summit of Uncompahgre, fourteen thousand three hundred and nine feet above sea level. They were like flames from some prehistoric campfire, leaping and dancing in the sky and changing colors. Red, gold, blue, violet… Aurora Borealis. The Northern Lights. It was the equinox, the changing seasons. Summer to fall, young to old, then to now.

“And then everyone was asleep, except me. And as I saw the morning star come up over the mountain, I realized at last that life is simply a collection of memories. But memories are like starlight: they live on forever.”

Wish I’d written that. Life is just a collection of memories, and we’re making them with a writer friend I met the very day I got into this business.

Y’all get out and travel!

Reader Friday-Old Words, New Meanings

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Another word bounce happening here! Elaine bounced off my pet peeve post, now I’m bouncing off hers from yesterday. This is fun, yes?

I took a trip recently. I bet you’ve taken the same one. The one where you start from your search bar, intent on research into a monumentally important topic, and you end up somewhere you’ve never been.

Enter…if you dare… The Cynic’s Dictionary. One of the funniest dictionaries I’ve ever come across. I unearthed a version of this, so some of the word definitions are slightly different than what you’ll see on the website.

On the other side of this post, please tell us your favorites, or make up your own.

Here goes:

ABDICATE: To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

BALDERDASH: A rapidly receding hairline.
CANNIBAL: Someone who is fed up with people.
CONSCIOUSNESS: that annoying time between naps.
INFLATION: Cutting money in half without damaging the paper.

 

 

Okay, let’s have some fun! Make up your own, or pull some from the website above…  🙂

Words, Words, Words

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By Elaine Viets 

As I write this, Hurricane Milton is barreling, charging, barging, and otherwise on its way to wreak havoc on Florida.

The hurricane is supposed to go up the state’s west coast, but hurricanes are unreliable. Their paths can shift any moment.

Don and I live in a condo on Florida’s east coast near Miami, where the state is only 110 miles wide. We’re supposed to just get sideswiped by Milton.

Right now, a tornado is twisting down Alligator Alley, the main road across the southern part of the state. The tornado is currently 16 miles from my house. We’re also under a tropical storm warning and a flood warning.

The wind is gusting outside, and condo residents have been warned not to walk across the pool deck that joins our two buildings. At least one resident was knocked over by the wind.

And we aren’t even in the hurricane’s direct path. We weren’t ordered to evacuate.

Since there’s a chance we can lose internet service or electricity on Thursday, I’m writing a blog that you can jump in and add your comments. Recently TKZ’s Deb Gorman invited us to pet our peeves here: bit.ly/3U0gFoQ

I’d like to continue that thread with some of my favorite – and not so favorite – new words and phrases. Here goes:

Weather event:  Webster says an event is “something that happens.” Or, “a noteworthy happening.  A social occasion or activity. An adverse or damaging medical occurrence, for example, a heart attack or other cardiac event.”

          So yes, a tropical storm, a flood, and a freaking hurricane are definitely “something that happens.” But they’re not an event. Nobody wants to attend these events. Not when innocent people are killed. So call these disasters out by their proper names.

I was today years old: This translates as “I just realized.” Some of these observations are fun to read, like this one from Jay on X: “I was today years old when I found out California has a bigger population than Canada.”

But jeez Louise, that’s a clumsy phrase. Let it fade away soon.

“Clean” as a noun. Clean is creeping into commercials as a noun. Hucksters for various kinds of soaps tell us their product is “the best clean for my family.” Or the “best clean for my clothes.”

Stop this abuse. You’ve gone clean out of your mind.

Doomscrolling. Now that’s a new word I can embrace. It means “continually scrolling through and reading depressing or worrying content on a social media or news site, especially on a phone.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m doing a lot of doomscrolling right now. About the election, and the hurricane.

Which brings me back to the beginning of this blog. The hurricane that’s about to devastate Florida Wednesday night. If you want to help people, please check out the link below.

Meanwhile, wish me luck, and all the people in Milton’s path.

And tell me some of your words and phrases.

How can you help people hit by the hurricane? Here are some reliable organizations recommended by ABC News. bit.ly/3zVUvNR

Why I Suck at Marketing

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Why I Suck at Marketing
Terry Odell

shopping cart of booksBeing an old dog and, as an indie author, being responsible for every aspect of my book publication processes, it’s hard to remember that just because I don’t like something doesn’t mean nobody else does. I’m not talking about the writing. Everyone finds the system that works for them. Plotter, Pantser, or Plantser? Nitty gritty or beautiful words? How much violence? Profanity? Look at any best-selling book’s reviews on Amazon. There will be one and two star ratings along with the fours and fives, so you’ll never please everyone.

No, I’m talking about the other side of the job. The part I dread.

Marketing. Promotion. Getting the book from “uploaded” to “being bought.”

There are so many aspects of marketing, and I haven’t found any I like.

But just because I don’t like them doesn’t mean I shouldn’t at least give some of them a try. Debbie covered some of this in her post yesterday.

I know authors who promote a new release with Facebook “parties.” Or blog tours, some of which they spend bucks on to have a professional set them up.

What I see is people who follow these tours are looking for a chance to win whatever giveaways the author is enticing people with. Most of them aren’t buying the book. But maybe the authors are looking at this as more of a way to connect with readers, which might lead to future sales.

What about posting things on social media? I’ve said it before, and my opinion/advice hasn’t changed. Social media should be at least 80% SOCIAL. Seeing countless variations on “buy my book” doesn’t work for me as a consumer, so I don’t do it as an author.

I’ve never bought a book based on a book trailer. I might have looked at the book after a trailer, but that’s rare. Yet, just because I don’t think book trailers are of much value, some people do. And, because it was very easy to do with Canva, I went ahead and made a trailer for Double Intrigue.

Again, because it was easy, and more fun than a lot of other marketing chores I avoid, I created some graphics as well. Do they send people to my book pages? I don’t know. But they seem a slightly more subtle way to draw attention to my book. (Clicking will enlarge images)

Don’t get me started on ads. When I’m shopping for a book, I usually have a good idea what I’m looking for, and go straight there. I’ve been told that Amazon puts ads on book pages, but to be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever noticed them. Of course, that’s because 97.63% of my book purchases are at Barnes & Noble, not Amazon. Almost all of my Amazon “buys” are the monthly free books because I have a Prime account. B&N probably has ads, too, but there again, I’m there for the book I want.

I haven’t done Amazon ads.

The big reason? Because Amazon ads require all sorts of conniving to reach an audience. You have to bid for placement, target an audience, set budgets, do AB testing … my old brain hurts, and I wonder how much money you have to put out there before you see a return. I was at a workshop once, and the presenter said she had no issues with forking over $200/day just to test her ads. Not me. And having to take courses to learn how to run ads … not my thing. I’d rather spend that time writing. After all, writing the next book is the best marketing ploy.

Now, I have run ads (not talking about Featured Deals) at Bookbub because they’re very easy to set up. Are they as effective as if I’d spent the time learning how to use Amazon and Facebook ads? I don’t know. Can’t compare what I haven’t tried.

A takeaway here is that you shouldn’t be acting based on only your preferences. You’re not your audience. You’re not your peers.

Another aspect of marketing I learned the hard way. Covers. They’re part of your book’s image. Part of your brand. They need to let readers know at a glance what kind of a book they’re being asked to buy. That’s why publishing houses have art and  marketing departments, and they’re separate from the editing side. Deb went into covers in great depth last week, and I shared a post I did about covers there as well.

What about you, TKZers? Do you enjoy the marketing side of publishing? And yes, even traditionally published authors, unless they’re the BIG NAMES, have to do some of their own marketing.

New! Find me at Substack with Writings and Wanderings

When your dream assignment turns into more than you bargained for …
Cover of Double Intrigue, an International Romantic Suspense by Terry Odell Shalah Kennedy has dreams of becoming a senior travel advisor—one who actually gets to travel. Her big break comes when the agency’s “Golden Girl” is hospitalized and Shalah is sent on a Danube River cruise in her place. She’s the only advisor in the agency with a knowledge of photography, and she’s determined to get stunning images for the agency’s website.
Aleksy Jakes wants out. He’s been working for an unscrupulous taskmaster in Prague, and he’s had enough. When he spots one of his coworkers in a Prague hotel restaurant, he’s shocked to discover she’s not who he thought she was.
As Shalah and Aleksy cruise along the Danube, the simple excursion soon becomes an adventure neither of them imagined.

Like bang for your buck? I have a new Mapleton Bundle. Books 4, 5, and 6 for one low price.

Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”

Lessons in Business Cards and Bookmarks

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by Debbie Burke

@burke_writer

Today, we’re crawling down in the weeds to discuss a couple of minor details about promotion and marketing. Will these help you sell thousands of books? Nope. Probably not even hundreds. But every book sale is precious and small details matter.

Having been in business, I have decent marketing knowledge and experience. But self-promotion is a big problem for me so I’m always looking for ways to make it less awkward.

My new book, Fruit of the Poisonous Tree, #9 in the Tawny Lindholm Thriller series, published October 1.

That prompted me to rethink business cards and bookmarks. Yup, I warned this post was going to be about teeny-tiny details.

Author business cards are necessary. They lend a professional tone that says you’re a serious writer. Even if you haven’t yet published any books, it’s still a good idea to have cards printed with your name and contact info (email, website address, social media handles) to give to people you meet at conferences, book events, classes, etc.

Note: for privacy and safety, I don’t recommend printing phone number or physical address on business cards. If I want a particular someone to have my number, I handwrite it on the card.

Designing cards is a trial-and-error process. Mine have gone through many iterations. I use Canva (free) to design them. I started on the cheap with plain vanilla, one sided black & white. Next upgrade, I tried a slightly fancier, glossy finish version with a background pattern of books. My name, website, and email were printed on the cute background. But for aging eyes, lack of contrast made the text too difficult to read. Then I tried color but only one side. The most recent versions are two-sided and color.

Yes, each version is progressively more expensive, but the expense is deductible.

Business cards make an important impression at conferences, signings, teaching gigs, appearances. When you meet dozens or hundreds of new people, you want to stand out so they remember you in a positive way.

A couple of years ago, I discovered thumbnails of book covers make a much stronger impression than a straight business card. People turn the card over and say: “Did you write all these books?” “Yes.” “Wow! Cool!”

Whether you have one book or many, IMHO, adding cover images to your business cards is worth the expense.

A recent design is two-sided, full color. Side 1 is my name and the kinds of writing I do (novelist, journalist, blogger), my website address, social media links, and email.

Side 2 has thumbnails of book covers and sales outlets.

Here’s a sample with six book covers.

As I kept adding to the series, the second side of the card got crowded. At eight books, there was no more room for expansion.

 

Hmmm, did I need to consider a larger format such as a bookmark?

Many authors give out bookmarks, but I never had because I don’t use them myself. Why should I waste money on something that likely ends up in the wastebasket?

Did I have a lesson to learn? Yes!

As an experiment, I had color bookmarks printed. One side was my name, photo, website, and where to buy books. The second side showed thumbnails of eight book covers.

Last January, Barnes and Noble opened a new store in our town and hosted signings by local authors. Hundreds of eager readers showed up because there hadn’t been a major bookstore in the area since Borders shut down in 2011.

In addition to the books on my table, I laid out business cards and bookmarks. I noticed people didn’t pick up many cards, but they did pick up bookmarks.

Maybe I needed to rethink my attitude that bookmarks are a waste of money.

With the launch of book 9, again I’d run out of space for covers.

How to feature the new book?

I put the cover of Fruit of the Poisonous Tree on one side with my name, website, and where to buy. On the second side were the covers for the rest of the books.

I started carrying a pocketful of bookmarks in addition to business cards.

Pro tip: buy clothes with pockets.

Zumba friends have always been supportive of my books. When I offered the new bookmarks at Zumba class, people snapped them up. Several women asked if they could take additional ones to give to friends and their book clubs. One is heading to Arizona for the winter and wanted to share bookmarks with her reading group there.

The pocketful I’d brought to class quickly ran out. I brought more to another Zumba class with different people. Ran out again. People I didn’t know asked questions about my books. Passersby in the gym stopped to listen to our conversations and asked for bookmarks.

Why will people turn down a business card but eagerly accept a bookmark?

Here’s the first lesson that I needed to learn:

Many readers like and use bookmarks. Because of tunnel vision, I had discounted their importance.

 What I want or like doesn’t matter; what the reader wants or likes does matter.

In salesmanship, there are five steps to making a sale:

  1. Attention.
  2. Interest.
  3. Desire.
  4. Conviction.
  5. Decision.

Bookmarks accomplish two of the five steps necessary to make a sale.

The second lesson: people perceive business cards and bookmarks in different ways.

A business card is more than an identification and contact tool. It sends a subtle psychological message. When you accept a salesperson’s card, their unspoken request is, “You are going to buy this car from me, aren’t you?”

That’s why it’s called a business card. If you take one, that indicates an interest in purchasing goods or services.

Accepting their card is their first step in breaking down a buyer’s sales resistance.

When someone doesn’t want to buy or isn’t sure, they may be reluctant to take an author’s card because they don’t want their acceptance to be perceived as a commitment that they’re going to purchase your book. The implied pressure, even though it’s slight, can leave people with an uncomfortable impression of the author.

We don’t want that!

A bookmark is different. It’s a colorful, useful gift, not an obligation to buy. It’s a friendly reminder of books they may want to read. Reading is a pleasurable activity. That leads to a positive association with the author.

We do want that!

Of course, you’d like them to buy your book, but a bookmark is accepted in a different spirit than a business card. It’s a welcoming, open-ended invitation, not a commitment.

Watch the difference in people’s reactions when you offer them a business card vs. a bookmark.

Business cards and bookmarks serve different purposes and authors do need both.

It’s too soon in my experiment to tell if bookmarks lead to more sales but so far the favorable reactions from readers lead me to believe they will. Anything that increases reader interest and engagement can’t hurt.

~~~

TKZers: Do you use business cards, bookmarks, or both? Do you notice a difference in people’s reactions? Any tips to share about effective personal contact between authors ans readers?

~~~

Cover by Brian Hoffman

 

Jerome Kobayashi, 80, worked long and hard to achieve his dream cherry orchard on Flathead Lake. But now someone wants to destroy that dream.

Can investigator Tawny Lindholm and attorney Tillman Rosenbaum prevent that?

Fruit of the Poisonous Tree  

Ebook $3.99 or FREE on Kindle Unlimited