Dot Dead Diary

Three Book Marketing Bullets

• Back Pages Books, a two-year old book emporium in Waltham, Massachusetts, is trying to establish a local author and at the same time show its marketing muscle.  Proprietor Alex Green has vowed to sell out the entire first print run of 1000 copies of Who by Fire, Who by Blood by Jon Papernick.  The book is now published only in Canada.  Here's what Green told the Boston Globe:  "If I can prove to a publisher that a 1,000-square-foot bookstore in a suburb of Boston can presell an entire print run before it's released, then maybe American publishers will take a second look," said Green. "Maybe they look at it and say that maybe if 1,000 people want [a book] from this small bookstore, then maybe thousands of people across the country will buy it."  Bravo for Mr. Green's moxie.  Gotta love those independents.  (Thanks to Nextbook for the tip.)
• This Sunday's New York Times Book Review ran a story on the "combination of 'The Gong Show' and speed-dating" that was the try-outs for the Jewish Book Network last month.  And I was there!  Like my 100 or so fellow authors, I had 120 seconds to tell volunteers why they might want to invite me to their Jewish Book Fairs to discuss my book.  In her article Rachel Donadio gives (deserved) kudos to impresaria Carolyn Starman Hessel, director of the Jewish Book Council.  (A poster from the Council by Maurice Sendak hangs on my office wall; it shows a Where the Wild Things monster reading a book of Shalom Aleichem stories to a boy and a girl.) 
• I'll be signing books at Kepler's in Menlo Park this Thursday, June 28 from 1 to 4 and again at Borders in downtown Palo Alto from 12 to 4 this Saturday, June 30.  Come on by.

Rubbing Shoulders

Last Wednesday I headed up to M is for Mystery in San Mateo to meet Matt Richtel.  He's a New York Times reporter with a Silicon Valley beat.  My brother had introduced us via email and we'd had a few desultory meetings via cyberspace, but our schedules had contrived to prevent a face-to-face meeting.  At 6.55 I sauntered in and introduced myself.  It wasn't hard to pick him out.  There were only two or three others there.  Such are the vagaries of the book tour.  Matt asked if we could wait a few minutes for his wife.  I guess parking in downtown San Mateo can be tough for by the time Matt started his presentation he had two dozen in the audience.  Matt's first book, Hooked, is getting a big push from the publisher and, like my own, is a mystery that before reaching resolution takes pot-shots at various high tech phobias, conceits, and neuroses.  Take a look.  It's a fun, kinetic read.

Saturday I stopped by M is for Mystery another fix.  The erudite and effervescent Megan Abbott, daughter of the writer Patti Abbott, was there to talk about her newest, Queenpin, whose main character is a savvy female gangster a la Virginia Hill.  Ed Kaufman, store proprietor, claims it to be her best -- high praise indeed.  She was joined by Susan Kandel, who pens a series of mysteries featuring Cece Caruso, a biographer of famous crime writers.  Megan and Susan's presentations were witty, but before they went on too long a discussion with the audience broke out.  They debated and opined on such topics as favorite mysteries, why Erle Stanley Gardner doesn't sell anymore and Dame Agatha does, the identity of the Black Dahlia murderer, noir versus pulp -- lots of fun.  Megan signed her book for my #1 and I'm waiting to get it on the rebound.  Last night I started the first in Susan's series, I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason, and it looks good.  Can't wait to get more into the mystery involving Erle Stanley Gardner, Palo Alto High's most famous crime novelist.

Matt Richtel

Megan Abbott

Susan Kandel

Mystery Solved

A friend told me that Dot Dead's ranking on Amazon had climbed to the 20,000's early today.  Why?  I did a little web browsing and discovered that the Jewish book site, Nextbook, has a nice blurb for Dot Dead right on its homepage which cites the recent Hadassah Magazine review.  Don't know how long the blurb will stay prominent, but you should be able to see it in any case with a double click on the picture to the left .  Mystery solved.

Hadassah Magazine's Mystery Roundup

Ellen Bob of the Los Altos (CA) bookstore Bob and Bob's tells me that Hadassah Magazine has the highest circulation of any Jewish periodical in the U.S.  Good to know since Zelda Shluker gives Dot Dead a very nice write-up in her mystery roundup, "Jewish (and Other) Gumshoes Are on the Case," in the June/July issue.  ("What more can you ask for?" she says at the end of her three paragraphs on Dot Dead.)  I'm in estimable company; others with books reviewed include the great Stuart Kaminsky, the late Batya Gur, Richard North Patterson, Daniel Silva, Rita Lakin, and Faye Kellerman.  Click here to see the article sans photos.

Don't Stop

Just JetBlued back from New York City late last night and then this morning posted what's below on Inkspot.  (Sorry to regular readers for any repetition.)

In the city, booksellers from all over the country were streaming to Javits Center where BEA, Book Expo America, started yesterday. Hundreds of publishers are showing what they have on the way to the buyers for thousands of bookstores. Last year’s BEA was definitely one of the highlights of my life as a writer. One day I signed ARC’s (advanced reader copies) at the Mystery Writers of America’s booth. Margery Flax and team managed to recruit a queue of autograph seekers. Then the next day I did a general signing. The line was 50 people long! I kept asking people why they were waiting for Dot Dead, a book they hadn’t heard of by an author who was obscure. Not celebrity behavior I guess, but the experience was the zenith of my writer’s high.

Of course, after last year’s BEA, Dot Dead was published and started showing up in bookstores. In two months after publication I visited bookstores in Seattle, Portland, Southern California, Colorado, and the Bay Area. I had a great time being driven around Seattle by author and friend Ann Eisenberg as though I really was somebody. At High Crimes Mystery Bookstore in Boulder, the proprietors told me that when Joe Konrath was there, he went out into the street and recruited people for his talk. I wasn’t about to be one-upped and did the same; the result was a listing on the bestseller list of the local paper, the Daily Camera. Mary Nam, the anchor at KOMO-TV in Seattle, interviewed me live and when we were done, turned and gave me a look of utter amazement. “You’re good,” she said in a voice tinged with incredulity. Ann’s husband Matt congratulated me for getting some talk of sex in a one minute interview. Dr. Johnson once said, “The prospect of hanging concentrates the mind wonderfully.” And that’s what happened to me when I was on live TV or radio. (You can hear an interview here.) There were a couple of stops where just a person or two showed up, but those bad memories were pretty much wiped away by the culmination of the tour at my hometown store, Kepler’s, where 75 people, including some I hadn’t seen since high school, showed up.

So then my tour was over and everything stopped? Not hardly. This spring, I have:

• been the April Fools' Day guest reader at a meeting of Sisters in Crime LA,
• signed and signed 50 copies of Dot Dead at three different booths at the LA Times Festival of Books,
• arranged for a table at the local Borders where I hand sold 19 copies of Dot Dead,
• done a signing at the San Francisco Mystery Bookstore with Steve Hockensmith, Simon Wood, and fellow Inkster Tim Maleeny,
• presented to the mystery readers’ group at the Menlo Park Library,
• had the right to name characters in my next book, Two Graves, auctioned off by two charities,
• been the guest of honor at a fundraiser for a local private school (copies of Dot Dead came with the tickets),
• appeared as a featured writer during authors’ week at two high schools,
• showed up at Kepler’s book club night to be introduced and sign books,
• signed books at the re-opening of Bob and Bob,
• attended the sessions of five book groups, and
• been interviewed for an article in an upcoming issue of Gentry Magazine.

Oh, back to the beginning of this post. I was in New York this week the week of BEA to attend a Meet the Authors Night, sponsored by the Jewish Book Council. A hundred authors, including me, had two minutes to pitch ourselves as speakers to the volunteer staffs of Jewish book fairs around the country. One expects authors to be less than articulate when moving lips rather than writing words. Wrong. Of the 30 pitches I myself heard, at least two dozen discussed books that sounded terrific to me. Not much fiction was presented, though, and no other mysteries. I schmoozed with people from Maryland, Austin (including a fellow Palo Alto High grad), Indianapolis, D.C., Rockland County (NY), Richmond, Ann Arbor, Rochester (NY), Atlanta, and Detroit. If all goes well, I'll be on the road visiting some of them during their book fairs in November. The first time I met the classy and friendly Jewish mystery writer Rochelle Krich it was at one of fairs, and she recommended them highly to me.

I’m still learning about book promotion, and I’m nowhere near halfway up the learning curve. But one thing I have learned is that it never stops.

What are other authors doing after the initial post-publication round of bookstore visits and interviews?

I [Heart] New York

I'm writing from the kitchen of my friends Ian and Lexa on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  They insist they enjoy putting me up when I'm in town, and I love staying with them. 

In keeping with my new gig as a full-time writer, I've become more frugal.  I took the Airtrain from JFK instead of a cab.  You have to make two transfers and it's kinda hot and sweaty, but I did save $35.  As always, Ian, Lexa, and I spent my first evening here at a restaurant, Telepan this time, and it was scrumptious.  I managed to gobble down a smoked trout appetizer, asparagus, halibut, and a sorbet dessert.  All highly recommended except the raspberry sherbert (the mango sorbet was fine).

Yesterday I had lunch with my college buddy Rick, who's now a muckety-muck at one of the big publishers in town.  I hadn't seen him since graduation.  Yet he was recognizable.  He gave me even more insight into the tricky game of the 21st century book business.  Old school ties can be great.

Last night I, along with three dozen other authors, got two minutes to pitch the volunteer staffs of Jewish book fairs around the company.  The Meet the Author Program is sponsored and run like clockwork by the non-profit Jewish Book Council's Carolyn Starman Hessel, Miri Pomerantz, and Joyce Lit.  One expects authors to be less than articulate when moving lips rather than writing words.  Wrong.  Almost every book sounded worth reading to me.  Not much fiction, though, and no other mystery writers.  Spoke to a few fellow authors too including Ann Kirschner, author of Sala's Gift and a colleague of the aforementioned Lexa, and Mia Fontaine, co-author with her daughter of a harrowing memoir of redemption that was recently a "Bookmarked Club Pick" at Target.  The poor book fair people who'd come in from around the country looked a little shell-shocked.  Who could blame them?  They had listened to pitches the night before us and will be listening to more tonight.  I schmoozed with people from Maryland, Austin (including a fellow Palo Alto High grad), Indianapolis, D.C., Rockland County, Richmond, Ann Arbor, Rochester, Atlanta, and Detroit.  If all goes well, I'll be on the road some during Jewish Book Month in November. 

Flying home today (with a coupla dozen H&H bagel) and starting work tomorrow on Draft #3 of Two Graves.  As much as I love New York, it will be good to get back to a place where the temperature goes down at night.

Antipodal Success

Was floating around the Web this morning and discovered that Dot Dead was not only in the collection of the Walter Murdoch Library in South Perth, Australia, it's checked out!

Tomorrow I'm off to NYC via Jet Blue.  Wednesday I have a couple of minutes to convince 95 representatives of synagogues, Jewish Community Centers, and such that it would be a good idea to invite me to come talk at their book fairs.  Wish me luck.

Courage: Some Have It, Some Don't

There's enough in the papers, on TV, and even in the blogosphere about the massacre at Virginia Tech that no one needs to hear from me.  Or at least that's what I thought until I read this statement in this morning's New York Times:  "This brutal attack was not caused by nor should it lead to restrictions n the Second Amendment, which guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms."  God, no.  If you're running for president, your first reaction should be not to stop massacres, but to toady to the NRA, right?  I don't know if John McCain made that statement from his bus, "The Straight Talk Express" or not, but it still makes me angry.  Rudy Giuliani who in the past had stood for federal registration of handgun owners, now says, "People have the right to keep and bear arms and the Constitution says this right will not be infringed.''   Don't think this is a Democrat-Republican issue.  Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, said, "I hope there's not a rush to do anything" in response to the Blacksburg massacre.  A plague on both your houses!

When I worked on anti-terrorism for the Senate, I helped get a bill going that would place inert markers in gunpowder and other explosives.  In case of a terrorist bomb made with a substance that contained the markers, the government would be able to trace where the explosive was manufactured.  The National Rifle Association opposed the bill because some hobbyists made their own bullets from black powder.  The markers would not have stopped them from doing so, but that didn't matter.  The bill never had a chance.

Should people have the right to have assault weapons?  Should the perpetrator of the horror in Blacksburg have been able to get his hands on ammo clips that held more than ten bullets?  Why?  Does anybody doubt that if it were put up to a national plebiscite, we would have greater control over firearms?  Last October an ABC/Washington Post poll showed 61% in favor of stricter laws.  I want a president with morals beyond those required to get elected, one who will not toady, but will lead.  Sigh.

Finally this.  Do you know what broke my heart?  That Liviu Librescu, a 76-year old survivor of the Holocaust teaching at Virginia Tech, died while blocking the door to his classroom so his students could escape from the mass killer.  And that the massacre occured on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Narrow Places

As noted the other day, my wife, with some assistance from #2, #3, and #4, got the house ready for Passover while #1 and I gallivanted around L.A.  Anything with wheat, corn, yeast, etc. had to go.  The pantry shelves, garage, and fridge look spic and span.  Then last night seventeen us were over for a Seder and feasting.

I've been told Passover is the world's longest continuously celebrated holiday.  Of course, the holiday celebrates freedom, the Israelites' escape from slavery in Mitzrayim, which is usually translated as "Egypt."  Mitzrayim more literally means a "narrow place," a place where one is confined, constricted, imprisoned, or enslaved.  Last night we said prayers for people who, like the Israelites in Egypt, do not enjoy freedom today.  At the same time, thinking more figuratively, we ourselves can find ourselves constricted by a desire for money, an unpleasant job, a health condition, a bad story outline, and on and on.  So during this Passover week, I'll be thinking about how to free myself from any narrow places I've managed to wedge myself in.

Seder-ing last night at our place.

LA Story

#1 and I drove down to L.A. Saturday afternoon.  We met my godson Couper and his fiancée Julia for dinner at the trendy Social Hollywood.  When we arrived at 7.30, there was almost no one there.  By the time we left after 11, the place was beginning to jump.  Outside there were lines to get in neighboring clubs and even the younger three of our quartet, not just that old fuddy-duddy moi, thought that the women were somewhat scantily clad.  Then we drove over to a nearby charming neighborhood and checked out Coup and Julia's new house.  Cute, but a real fixer-upper.  Its wooden floors ripple like ocean waves.  I'm planning on regular visits over the next decade to check on how handy the newlyweds are with hammer, saw, and screwdriver.

Saturday morning we brunched with three officers of the Sisters in Crime LA Chapter -- Sue Ann Jaffarian and Diana and Darrell James.  Great to see them and catch up.  All publishing talk, but the breakfast was good enough to keep #1 happy.  She and I visited Book'em Mysteries next.  Had fun meeting bookseller Jean Utley there and picking up a pile of books.  Then Edgar-nominee Naomi Hirahara and her husband Wes came by, and we headed out for coffee and tea and conversation.  I kinda basked in Naomi's aura.  Why don't they do some sort of video streaming of the Edgars?

Then off to the Sisters in Crime L.A. meeting where I read excerpts from Dot Dead and the first chapter of Two Graves, my book #2.  What I read from Two Graves is dark and sanguinary, but I received a compliment here and there.  Then we listened to Mark Hardiman tell wacky stories about being a prosecutor that you never see on Law and Order or anywhere else on TV.  After that, we hit another local café for tea, coffee, and sandwiches with the witty and talented duo of Brett Ellen  Block, whose The Lightning Rule is next on my reading list, and Jennifer Colt, whose Vampire of Venice Beach, is just out.  My sister is going to New York this week.  Tonight at Passover, I'll be delivering high class airplane reading to her:  autographed copies of Sue Ann's Curse of the Holy Pail and Jennifer's Mangler of Malibu Canyon. 

Talking about Passover, I left my poor wife to do most of the clean-up while cruising around L.A.  I've been assigned last minute vacuuming, and I'd better get to it.

That's me flanked by real writing talent -- Sue Ann Jaffarian and Jennifer Colt -- at yesterday's Sisters in Crime Meeting in South Pasadena (SoPA?).