Advice for Writers Events

Recently our own Joseph Walker posed an interesting question on the Short Mystery Fiction Society list:

 In a few weeks I'm going to have a table at a local author event in my town. Specifically, I'll be one of 25 authors in the parking lot of the (awesome, btw) local indie bookstore, for four hours.

 I've certainly heard many horror stories from writers about attending such events and selling no books, or just one or two. So, any advice? How do I make the most out of this? I'll have about 20 copies of my collection, and I've got a little banner to display on the table and bookmarks to give out. What else can I do?

I thought it was a great question, and of particular interest to me because I will be at a similar event next month.  Joe got many responses and with his permission and that of the other writers, I am sharing some with you.

Chris Dreith: Since it's going to be held outside, have a patio umbrella or a tent constructed over your table. If it's an umbrella, make sure it's a bright color. They are a hassle to set up, but make sure it's weighted at the base so it won't blow over.

 If it's a tent, bring something to hang from it, like a colorful flag, ribbons, or even a wind chime. Print the cover of your book on a sheet to hang behind you. Make yours different. (Don't forget to bring tools. Stapler, plastic ties, cords, carabiners, whatever you need.)

Bring heavy items to hold down papers, etc if it is windy. These items could also be used as conversation starters. Maybe a heavy brass dog holding down a K9 book or a piece of granite for a mountain based mystery. 

 Position your table so it is in the shade, but also you and possible buyers are also in the shade.

If you need to stay seated, bring a tall stool to park on so you are at more eye level with people who pass by. 

Get away from the back of the table often to view it from the passerby's viewpoint. Keep it clean and organized (that shows pride in your work).

If you have someone seated at your table with you, don't spend your time talking with them. It's off-putting to try to get the salesperson's (in this case, the authors) attention if they are deep in conversation with someone else seating behind the 'barrier' table.

Wear something comfortable for the weather but make it unique and memorable. Top hat? Colorful vest? Print the cover of your book on a T-shirt. 

Wear a name tag.

Smile. Look folks in the eye. Talk to them. You don't have to ask the same opening questions that everyone else does. (What do you like to read?) Take into consideration the person's facial expression and body language. For example, you might find something different to say to a young parent pushing a baby carriage and another kid stuck in a backpack compared to an older person pushing a cart carrying a poodle with a bow.

 Have a bag ready for trash. Keep your table and space around it clean.

 You can have the cover of your book printed on candy wrappers. (Contact me for info). A friend of mine prints a cookie recipe on a card with her book cover on the opposite side, puts said cookie and card in a clear bag with a ribbon to close the top. I somehow don't see you doing that (she has help from her daughter's Girl Scout troop. LOL) but if you do decide to bring any type of food, make sure it is approved by the organizers.

Make sure your swag is unique enough to keep. 

Understand what your goal is. If it is to sell many books, you will need to cause enough of a stir that folks will buy from you instead of wandering around to buy from someone else or going into the bookstore. Maybe reduce the price of your books  (slightly) than what the bookstore charges? Offer a 2 for 1? Offer to appear at a local bookclub for free (they don't need to know you might not charge anyway). Cause some action. 

If your goal is to get known, consider printing up a calendar of where you might be appearing. A library, a zoom presentation, etc. Have a sign up sheet for your newsletter.

Susan Oleksiw: The tables I’ve seen (and done myself) that have the most traffic (if not the most sales) have a table cloth, candy, and even flowers—something to draw people in and give them something to ask about or look at before they remember it’s about books and writing. You can even invite people to sign up for your newsletter or enter their name in a jar for the chance to win one of your books (a freebie!). 

Linda Kay Hardie: Stay alert and interested. Engage with the folks walking by. Like, "Hi, what do you like to read?" or "Hi, we're all local authors, signing and selling our books," or "Hi, this is my collection of short mystery [or crime, whatever] stories. Would you like a free bookmark?"   

Many people don't know what's going on, no matter how much publicity the authors and the bookstore have done.

 Chat with anyone who slows down. If they stop at your table, hand them your book. Tell them a funny [or strange or interesting] anecdote about how you came to write/publish one of the stories. 

 If they answer your question about what they like to read, pitch one of your stories. "You like westerns? My story in here called [title] is a western murder mystery set in Pahrump, Nevada."

 And this time of year: "Books make great gifts. It's not too early. Do you know a reluctant reader? Short stories are good because they're quick to read." And then pitch. If their teen grandson doesn't read much, mention a story he might like ("Thieves use video games to plan a bank robbery."). Or granddaughter. Or brother-in-law.

Kristen Gibson: Try to take a few minutes before the event to meet the bookstore staff and other authors, chat or ask visitors about their interests to see if it matches something you've written or even another author's at the event-others may then be encouraged to send someone your way.  

Bobbi Chukran: Make sure they know you’re local. Put a little sign on your table “Signed Copies by Local Author.”

Steve Liskow:  I prefer to join events with no more than five or six other authors (preferably in different genres so there's less competition) but that's no guarantee. Last month, I was at an outside event with 80 (yes) authors and sold eight books. 

I  have my bio and author picture in a picture frame.

I wouldn't have candy or flowers because your books aren't cozy or children's books. It's the wrong tone.

Since you're going to be outside for four hours, wear a hat and bring sunglasses. Bring a few hard candies or a protein bar, and maybe a water bottle. 

When you arrive, be sure to find out  where the bathroom is.

You should have a chip reader and Venmo or PayPal on your phone. Also bring lots of dollar bills for change. I price my books at a dollar amount including tax so nobody has to deal with coins. 

Noreen M. Cedeño: I have been at events where authors displayed a QR code leading to purchase links with the URL to their website listed beneath the code. A certain percentage of people will take a photo of the link or will use the QR code to buy the book online. I was surprised by the number of people who pulled out their phones for the QR code.  

 All you have to do is print a sheet of paper with your QR code and website link and place it on the table (or in a clear plastic flyer stand if you have one). 

Kevin R. Tipple: If you are doing the QR code thing, have something that announces your actual internet link. Many of us do not QR anything.

 James H. Lewis: I found at my last event that keeping people at my table who were NOT buying my books created interest in others. ("If there’s someone always at his table, his books must be interesting.") 

 

James M. Jackson: Before things start, get to know a bunch of authors placed near you, so when you ask what people like to read, and it isn't something you write, you can point them in the right direction -- some authors will get the idea and point people your way (also you get to know someone to watch your table when you have to use the facilities). 

I rarely sit down, except to inscribe a book. It's easier to engage people if you are standing at their level. If I can catch their eye, I have permission to speak.

 

Dave Zeltserman: Bring your Edgar Award nomination certificate. It will be a good conversation starter and should attract some attention.

 Be friendly, talk to people, but don't be pushy.

 Teresa Inge:  I keep small swag bags on my table, bookmarks, a table runner with my logo, and my books on a table top book rack from Amazon. I also keep my table items simple since it’s just easier for me. One note, sometimes anthologies and short stories are a hard sell but I never let that deter me. I have a standard response when readers tell me they either don’t like or have never read a short story. I let them know with short stories they can read a couple in one setting, get to know the characters and outcome, and discover new authors that they might have never read before! They usually buy from me but I think it’s also a connection between the author and reader. 

 Judy Penz Sheluk: Sometimes you'll sell a lot of books. Sometimes you'll sell none. As long as you've made connections with readers, networked with other authors, consider it a success. You never know where a chance meeting will lead. Case in point. Many moons ago, starting out, I did Word on the Street (huge event) in downtown Toronto. It took me 90 minutes to get there (no train service on Saturdays from the town I lived in at the time). Paid $35 for parking. Sold 1 book where my profit was about $10. But the author next to me was Nate Hendley, who later became a multiple award-winning true crime author. I won't say we became friends, but we made a connection that lasted. Fast forward 8 years and Nate offered to blurb my true crime coming out later this month. 

John A. Tures: 1) Bookmarks are great. I designed my own! Make sure you have that QR code on them, and that it works.

 2) For my table display, since I am writing about a fictional third-party movement, I display political ties and buttons. I have patrons come over just to check it out, for politics interests and because it's unique. Having something different does catch peoples' eyes,

 3) Just tell yourself "I am here to sell three books, finding three devoted fans." Your chances of selling 10 are better that way. If you tell yourself "I won't be happy unless I sell at least six," you'll be lucky to sell 1-2.

 4) Keep track of their contact info, with their permission. It's good for selling sequels.

 5) I ask about taking selfies with buyers. I get a lot of takers. But I'm a shameless extrovert.

 6) As always, remember why you're doing it all. My wife, who has stuck with me throughout this, and is very supportive of my writing and a great helper, is now mostly wheelchair-bound. I hope to make enough from sales to take her on one last vacation abroad, before it's too late. So each time I pack up my 2004 Chrysler at 6am with a load of boxes of books, I remember what it's all for, let her sleep in, and do my best to make some readers happy too in the process.

MB Dabney: It doesn't hurt to have a bowl of candy. But always tell kids they must ask their parents before they can have any.

Roger Johns: (1) try to get a position on what will be to the customers' right, as they approach the selling area. Most people are right handed and tend to look to their right as they enter a space, so you're likelier to engage readers from a position on their right, as they approach. And near the door—it's a natural stopping point—where you'll have a chance to engage them, before they've made their purchase decisions.

 (2) Have a short, interesting pitch you can deliver while you’ve got their attention, and a closer to help them decide in your favor, if they haven’t made a decision by the time you sense the contact is coming to an end, such as: “If you have a friend/loved one who reads ——-, an autographed book makes a great gift”. 

 (3) Don’t sign your books with the same signature you use to sign your checks. And if they want the book inscribed to a particular recipient, ask how the name is spelled, before you write it in the book.  Bring a narrow point Sharpie, breath mints, and hand sanitizer. Consume liquids sparingly. 

 (4) Some folks like to talk to authors, but don’t buy books, so if a long talker is keeping others from approaching you, have a polite way to move them along.

 Robert Lopresti: Does all this good advice make you want to join the Short Mystery Fiction Society? It's free!  Click here to sign up.  And when you get up to a certain level of popularity, you can do  this at author events:

 

 

 

 

That's a Question

 

Last week, the local university’s library had an open house of its special collections. My traveling companion and I attended. It felt nice to act erudite and sophisticated without writing a big donor’s check for the privilege.

The library displayed a series of illuminated manuscripts. I couldn’t read a word. Sadly, I’ve let my classical Latin lapse. But I did enjoy looking at the vivid colors and intricate designs on the page. At the end of one line, I noticed a small mark, resembling a Spanish tilde. The docent explained that the medieval writer used this squiggle to indicate a question.

Feeling erudite and sophisticated, I nodded. Of course I knew that. When I got home, I looked it up. I immediately fell down a rabbit hole. 

As punctuation, the question mark has one of the more straightforward histories. We all know what a question is. In her 1932 lecture, “Poetry and Grammar,” Gertrude Stein certainly believed this. “A question is a question, anybody can know that a question is a question and so why add to it the question mark when it is already there…Therefore I never could bring myself to use a question mark. I always found it positively revolting…”

While I admire Stein’s passion, “revolting” seems a strong word for a punctuation mark. The sentence also overlooks a central debate in all things punctuation. Who is the mark intended to benefit? The question mark began, according to grammarian David Crystal, as a way of giving preachers a useful graphic cue about when to adopt a questioning tone of voice during a public reading.

We know that early written text was frequently unspaced. Scriptura continua reflected the way people speak—we don’t normally pause between words. But this mashup made reading challenging, so marks that separated words gradually emerged. Dots, slashes, and spaces began to appear. Reader marks followed. Some grammarians believe that our system of punctuation has its roots in ancient Egypt and the chief librarian of Alexandria.

Virtual Manuscript Library-Switzerland, Wikimedia Commons

On the specific origin of the question mark, most experts look to the Romans and their European heirs. In the 8^th Century, King Charlemagne invited the English scholar, Alcuin of York, to join his court. Grammarians credit him with creating the punctus interrogativus, or interrogative point. The mark signaled that an oral reader should add inflection to the end of the sentence. (The half note before tamen in the third line is a punctus interrogativus)

In 1582 Richard Mulcaster published The Elementarie, a stab at standardizing English writing. On the matter of the question mark, he wrote,

Interrogation: two points one aboue another, whereof the vpper is sometime croked which both in writing and reading teacheth us, that a question is asked there, where it is set. 

The short explanation reveals that English speakers still struggled in the 16^th Century to settle on what to call this inflection mark. They tried out “asker,” “erotreme,” “mark of interrogation,” “quaestio,” “interrogative point,” and “question stop,” before settling on the term “question mark.” Crystal cites the OED for authority that we didn’t finally agree on this term until the dawn of the Twentieth Century.

Grammarians also wandered a bit before settling on the question mark’s shape. Sources vary on how we arrived at the present form. Some suggest that the curved body mimics the bend of a cat’s tail when a feline becomes inquisitive.¹  While the cat-tail tale makes a good story for a Halloween blog, it lacks real academic support. Alcuin of York deployed the tilde shape, the outside end rising slightly like a lightning bolt. (a good design for prompting readers to employ an upward inflection.) Others wrote the word quaestio at the end of the sentence to signify a question. Over time, quaestio got reduced to a “q” above the “o.” Draw it out on a piece of paper. The shape is not far from a modern question mark.

Printers also may have influenced the design of our current interrogatory symbol. The theory goes like this. Most of the early printed publications were Bibles and other religious texts. Generally, they don’t contain many questions. Therefore, the number of question marks in a printer’s inventory of type was relatively small. When plays began to be published, the need increased. Plays are often full of questions. 

Think Shakespeare. "To be or not to be?" 

English grammar and spelling remained fluid. Printers improvised. Some flipped a semicolon to extend their stock of moveable type.

Finally, writers and grammarians puzzled through when to use a question mark. Although Gertrude Stein may think the question is obvious, rhetorical questions, in particular, pose an issue. What to do when someone is using the question form but not really asking a question? We’ve all likely experienced times when we’re simultaneously asked and told.

“You’re doing the dishes, aren’t you”

Can a question not be a question? And if it isn’t, how should it be punctuated?

In 1962, an American advertiser, Martin K. Speckter, proposed the interrobang (or interabang) as the solution, a punctuation symbol combining the question mark and the exclamation point. ‽ The interrobang was intended to indicate questions for which no answer was expected, or questions posed with excitement or disbelief. (Rejected names for the interrobang included ‘exclarogative’ and ‘consternation mark.’ After a flurry of interest, the symbol faded. As writers we’re back to the classical toolbox of punctuation marks. The question of how to properly punctuate these sentences remains.

How do you think we should handle them?

Do you have a punctuation mark you find positively revolting? 

Until next time.

-----------------------

1. Thanks to the Burbank Leader and Wikipedia for this feline tidbit.

Anyone up for horseshoes and hand grenades?

When something is called a simple truth, it isn’t always a contradiction in terms.  Some truths are simple.  If you jump from the top of a mature oak tree without a means for arresting the fall, you will hit the ground.  Irrefutable. However, the underlying mechanism involved in this event is gravity, and there is nothing simple about a fundamental force of nature. Ask any physicist.

I’ll go out on a limb of that oak tree and propose there is no truth that is simple, for the simple reason that a truth itself is nearly impossible to establish absolutely in all its particulars for every observer assembled for the task.

I’ll creep further out on the limb, testing its tethering to the trunk, and propose that mystery stories, in all their dazzling variety and genre distorting forms, are all essentially about people seeking the truth, in competition with other people and circumstances aligned in opposition.

Truth has always been under threat, yet today is a time of particular advantage for the powers of concealment and obfuscation.  There is a cultural trend of people “speaking their truth.”  This is a triumph of solipsism, since it affords deference to the notion that everyone’s version of reality is equally valid.  It’s also in direct contravention of Daniel Patrick Monihan’s maxim that “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”  If one abandons Moynihan’s proscription, then there’s really no point in trying to understand anything.  In such a world, we would have no use for people like Sam Spade or V.I. Warshawski. 

I spent many years in close enough proximity to the media, often thoroughly involved in the matter being reported upon.  In all these cases, I never observed the story to be 100% accurate.  And none of these slight variations (some not so slight) would I attribute to malicious intent.  The principal culprit was time.  It just wasn’t possible for any reporter, editor or factchecker to pin down every nuance and particular with total precision in the time required to get the story written/published/distributed.   The majority of these imperfections were incidental, though not all.  Journalism has its share of sloppy performers, but by and large, they strive for an accurate and dispassionate recording.

Still, biases have a way of creeping in.  This is always true for everybody.  They’re often manifest in how information is interpreted.  One of the wonders of language, and the cognitive process overall, is the bounty of ways one can express any given thought or observation.  Within these multitudes, there’s little chance that something can be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

What can be agreed upon is that everyone try to get close.  For this endeavor to work, we rely heavily on cynics, skeptics and imperturbable analytics.  Their counterparties are those committed to deceit, duplicity and guile, people actively striving to obscure the truth.  These folks are the bread and butter of the genre we celebrate, and thus indispensable.  What’s more interesting to me, however, are those who have decided the truth is their truth, a conclusion arrived at usually through a tortured, circuitous psychological voyage. 

They don’t have to be patently delusional.  There are plenty of historical heroes who simply understood something the rest of humanity considered absurd.  Though sometimes they are, they just don’t know it.  When this condition inhabits a brilliant or powerful mind, or a collective of capable people, things get really interesting. 

The action and adventure in the mystery genre are fun, though the appeal wanes over time.  What endures for me is the effort involved in uncovering the truth, however approximate it might be.  This dynamic achieves its fullest expression with the unreliable narrator, though any narrator’s reliability is also suspect for the reasons outlined above.  My favorite books are those that relish ambiguity and uncertainty while still managing to arrive at a satisfying conclusion. 

We know that massive social and political movements can be premised on monstruous untruths.  It’s unsettling to contemplate.  At least we have mysteries and their adjacent narratives, where in one messy entanglement someone was able to get close to something resembling a true thing.

Día de los Muertos Vivientes

Today's essay serves one purpose only, to lay the foundation for our 1^st of November's Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead article and persuade you to catch the most brilliant ghost story of our time. And, unbelieveably, it’s free. You may remember one of our authors whose life was cut short.  Allow us to reintroduce…

Fran Rizer
(12 Dec 1944 – 24 Dec 2019)

Andrew Wyeth: Ghosts

On a Christmas eve nearly seven years ago, our colleague Fran Rizer left us a gift, which we share today. Harking back to the golden age of horror, it’s one of the finest classic paranormal stories ever written. So why haven’t you heard of it?

It was published not in the US, but in a short-lived Canadian publication, Ficta Fabula. Rather than try to shop an already published story, Fran placed it in our SleuthSayers queue. Following damage to its MS Word file and to capture most recent publication edits, she turned to me for help.

We copied text from the publication’s PDF, which turned out a mess, suffering breaks at the end of every line instead of every paragraph. Italics and bolds disappeared. Little could be automated, paragraph by paragraph, it had to be reassembled by hand. She never anticipated it would take so long, nor that she wouldn’t be present for publication. Shaking off the ghost of Fran’s hand, so to speak, took a while, but the result is one of the most artfully ingenious stories you’ll likely read.

Fran and I became friends at an MWA gathering where she was giddy her first novel had been accepted for publication. Some thought her excitement was unseemly, but why not? We began to chat, partly about wrting, partly about everything. She liked to say after retirement she could move to Florida and quietly fade away, or live out her dream to write.

She sometimes phoned in the middle of the night to chat about nothing in particular. Fran was warm, witty, and wildly inappropriate. She entered her teens in the latter 1950s and I imagine young Fran was a trip and a handful. Even in her 70s, she was an incorrigible flirt. She loved men and could read XY chromosomes as readily as a Vanity Fair article. She had an uncanny knack of peering into the mind, perhaps learned from years of classroom experience and knowing herself. It wasn’t a bad thing.

Fran admired Mickey Spillane, loved bluegrass banjo, enjoyed cooking, and she appreciated American fine art. She claimed she watched sports for one reason only, to gaze upon players’, erm, male Sitzfleisch, that is to say derrières, tochus, hindaments, bums, buns, butts, booty patooties– you get the idea. That was Fran, unapologetic.

She also suffered great tragedy. Linda, Fran’s cousin, best friend, neighbor, and organizer of Fran’s Callie Parrish fan club, was brutally murdered in a home invasion. Fran swore she’d never write again. In our wee hour chats, I quietly listened. Slowly she returned to the notion of her writing again. That took a year. Her fourth novel wasn’t the same, but she’d taken the step. Over time, Fran once again found her footing.

Fran died on a Christmas Eve, her wonderful story suspended in the æther of the otherworld. For a long time, it occupied a pending spot in SleuthSayers files. Earlier this year, I readied it for the Halloween season as a holiday gift.

I cannot emphasize how much I admire this many layered story. You’ll discover why I illustrated today’s article with the Wyeth painting above. Take a moment on El Día de Muertos, the 1^st of November, to read her brilliant tale, Emily’s Ghost.

— Leigh

Since the Ball's in My Court

NOTE: We'll be traveling on the day this is posted, so I'll be late in responding to any comments. In other words, the ball will probably sit there awhile before being hit back.

Do you ever wonder where we Sayers of Sleuth get the ideas for these columns? (No, mine are not from those bowls of chili I eat just before going to bed.)

The idea for this post came from an interview I watched the other night following a college football game. A coach I will leave unnamed said to the press and the TV audience, "Our team came to play tonight and gave 110%, but it was a game of two halves, and at the end of the day the other side wanted it more."

Yes, I admit I'm paraphrasing that, but the real thing wasn't much better. After a lot more talk about momentum shifts and gut-checks and physicality and athleticism, he closed by saying they're taking it one game at a time, which if I'm not mistaken is the only possible way to take it.

On the one hand, I'm used to hearing this kind of mumbojumbo, because I like college football. On the other hand, I consider myself to be a writer and to know at least something about words and word usage. So, since I needed a subject for this column anyway, I put together the following list of 100 sports-inspired cliches that have made their way, God help us, into the English language and our everyday speech.

Fasten your chin-strap; here we go:

Keep your eye on the ball

It was a slam dunk

Par for the course

Step up to the plate

Full-court press

He talks a good game

It's time to play hardball

Don't pull any punches

Monday-morning quarterback

Go for the gold

Knock it out of the park

They control their own destiny

Put on your game face

In a league of their own

Out of left field

In my wheelhouse

Batting a thousand

On the rebound

Four-down territory

Hit a home run

The ball didn't bounce our way

They've moved the goalposts

A hail-Mary pass

We got the W

A team player

They brought their A-game

He's their go-to guy

Watch from the sidelines

Snap the ball

Pass the baton

Tee it up

Rein in

Jump the gun

Run interference

Take a rain check

We're on the home stretch

They left it all on the field

Go down swinging

Hit the ground running

A whole new ballgame

We're home safe

Warm the bench

Go the distance

Hit the bulls-eye

Home-field advantage

A must-win situation

Make the cut

The gloves are off

The ball's in your court

A photo finish

On any given Sunday

He ran the table

Nothing but net

Get the ball rolling

Take it on the chin

Just under the wire

Touch base

Move the chains

A team effort

Pinch hitter

Heavyweight/lightweight

Out of the starting gate

It's a marathon, not a sprint

False start

Kick off

Go to bat for

Throw in the towel

Behind the eight-ball

Two-minute warning

Cross the finish line

Top of the ninth

Stick to the game plan

Back up and punt

Saved by the bell

They threw us a curve 

Keep the drive alive

Bring home the gold

Call the play

Goal-line stand

They dropped the ball

He drained the three

She hit a hole-in-one

A dark horse

A low blow

A chip shot

A bad call

A tight race

A gutsy play

There's no I in team

They won't play ball

Split the uprights

In the red zone

Game, set, and match

Three strikes against you

Depends on where they spot the ball

The crowd went wild

Down for the count

Third and long

Fourth and goal

Take one for the team

. . . and many more

He took one for the team

Do you recognize all these sports-related phrases? Do you use some of them? Cringe when you hear them? (I especially hate "draining" those three-pointers. Draining?) Can you think of any cliches I left out? Did I think of way too many? (My wife says YES.)

Although I try hard to avoid using cliches--sports or otherwise--in my fiction writing, I confess that I use them a lot in speech, and also as a part of story dialog. Why? Because it feels and sounds natural to do, I guess, and because they're used so often almost everyone gets the meaning.

But I'll only take it so far. I promise that you'll never again hear me say or see me write the words athleticism or physicality, or use the letter W instead of the word win. I do try to maintain at least some dignity in my life.

A closing note: I'm not criticizing all sports broadcasters or coaches or others who regularly spew these kinds of words and phrases. Some make informative observations. NFL analyst and former quarterback Joe Theismann once said, "Nobody in the game of football should be called a genius. A genius is somebody like Norman Einstein."

On the subject of writing, Norman would probably say . . . Take it one story at a time. 

  

Book DNA – is it for you?

This is my penultimate SleuthSayers post, and I hope you'll find it helpful if you have a book to promote - or if you just like to read and discuss books!

When I was seeking publicity opportunities for It's Not Even Past a year ago, Liz Zelvin steered me toward Shepherd, a "book discovery platform" similar in some ways  - but not all - to

Goodreads. In 2026, Shepherd rebranded as Book DNA, which is certainly a more informative name for a book-finding service! They've got an interesting concept. Book DNA allows readers to find curated reading lists (if you like books by Jane Doe, here's what other Jane Doe fans recommend). It categorizes books by genre, and provides "author profile pages" that let you meet an author, learn about his or her book, and explore a list of five books that author recommends.

Well, why not? At the basic level, it's free to both readers and authors, so I hit "contact" and a pleasant, enthusiastic person named Cathy got back to me quickly, inviting me to fill out a form describing my book and listing five of my own faves. I was only sixty-five percent certain she was a real person and not an AI assistant, but - she turned out to be for real.

Listing my top five books was a tough assignment, because my purpose was to steer traffic toward my book, which is gritty crime fiction, perhaps could be called noir, and is technically a story collection, though the stories are interlocked, chronological, and  - read together -  form a novel. But many of my favorite writers are entirely outside those genres:  Colson Whitehead (The Nickel Boys, The Underground Railroad), Elizabeth Strout (Olive Kittredge), Ann Patchett (Bel Canto), George Saunders (Lincoln in the Bardo), Jim Fergus (One Thousand White Women), Jeffrey Eugenides (Middlesex). And don't get me started on kids' books. I read the entire Little House, All of a Kind Family, and Miss Bianca series straight through every few years. I still dream about Lois Lenski's Indian Captive and Ruth Archer's A Candle in Her Room. So I narrowed my focus to the best books that had something in common with my own - a dark premise, one or more murders, an element of mystery - and I still had a very, very hard time narrowing the list.

I knew Elizabeth George and Ruth Rendell would make the cut. I wasn't sure which book in either case, but I finally decided by thinking, well, you love all their books, but which do you remember best?  And that gave me What Came Before He Shot Her - George's tour de force follow-up to her own With No One as Witness, in which Inspector Thomas Lynley's fiancee, Lady Helen Clyde, is murdered by a child of twelve. What Came Before He Shot Her is heartbreaking, moving, terrifying - as good as any of George's novels, but in some regards, entirely different. For Rendell, I was tempted by The Veiled One - I love Inspector Wexford - but I finally decided on a Barbara Vine title, A Dark-Adapted Eye, a masterwork of secrets and family dysfunction. (Vine is one of Rendell's pseudonyms.)

I had the same problem with Kate Atkinson, and I sort of thought I should list her twice - once for Jackson Brodie (I chose Case Histories, almost solely because it's first, but they're all great) and again for her more literary (and weird, and wonderful) Life After Life. I finally went with Jackson because it's closer to what I write - he's a semi-amateur sleuth with a predilection for trouble - and also because how do you choose Life After Life without its equally stunning companion novel, A God in Ruins? Haven't read those? Get thee to Bookshop.org. You are in for a life-changing read. I promise. 

Well, speaking of life-changing, I've listed three books and haven't gotten to Sarah Waters yet, although she's probably the best contemporary writer going. Fingersmith, remember? But I went with The Paying Guests. Oh. My. God. Just read it, if you haven't yet. It's got everything: Depression-era London, class warfare, forbidden lesbian sex, murder…

I sat up late arguing with Emma Donaghue (Room, Frog Music) and Paulette Jiles (have mercy! she has written some amazing books: Enemy Women, News of the World). Finally, I realized I cared a lot more about my list than either of them do (also, they weren't actually there) and I went with Jiles' phenomenal The Color of Lightning. It was tough because I dream about News of the World, but Lightning taught me so much about the American West and about fine, fine writing. It's the fictionalized story of Britt Johnson, a free Black cowboy who rescues his family from Comanchees during the Civil War.

When I'd turned in my list, along with a blurb about my own book, I heard back from Cathy and crew almost immediately. They'd made some small cuts for space and some edits to break up lengthy blocks of text. I didn't really notice anything missing, but I certainly appreciated being asked. 

The next step takes us to my only quibble with Book DNA - the buy button. Although readers can buy from Bookshop.org, Amazon is the default. One must click on a very small arrow on the Amazon button to see that there's an option.

I clicked through on both sales platforms to check my book, and found that there was no "preview" or "look inside" option on Amazon - something that many readers use prior to making a purchase. It turns out that Amazon doesn't post previews until a book is actually released. And once again, Book DNA came through with flying colors, offering to hold off posting until the release date - October 20.  

As Dad often reminded us, "there's no such thing as a free lunch." But no one at Book DNA had asked me for a dime. So - how do they make money? In two ways, as it turns out. One, Book DNA receives a commission on sales that accounts for about twenty percent of their revenue. The other eighty percent comes from reader and author memberships. But the "freemium" model means that the basic membership level is free for both writers and readers. Authors can - and many do - pay a bit more to get special promotion and increased visibility, but the curated lists are free for real.

There are plenty of happy writers engaging with the site, but it's always informative to know what folks don't like. So I asked Uncle Google what dissatisfied authors had to say about the platform, and the answer was revealing: authors didn't like the effort required to choose five favorite books and write a paragraph about each. These are writers.  Writers trying to promote a book. A book they have written. Go figure.  Ben Fox, co-founder of Book DNA, says that it should take authors thirty to 45 minutes to write something that will "deliver a lifetime of steady promotion. This isn't a blog where it posts and then readers never see it again; your recommendations plug into our entire platform, and every reader who visits looking for a book has a chance of bumping into your book and your book recommendations as they explore."

If you read my last SleuthSayers post, you know that I'm willing to work hard to take advantage of small promotion and publicity opportunities, and that some of these "little ponds" have really paid off for me. So I've little time for writers who claim to want to sell books but are not willing to make the effort to do so. 

I'm excited about the Book DNA opportunity, and I'm interested to see what happens on October 20th. Stay tuned.

Anna Scotti's work appears frequently in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. It's Not Even Past will be released by Crippen & Landru on October 20, followed by They Look Like Angels, a collection of stand-alone stories, early next year.  Scotti is the Chautauqua Journal's nominee for Best of the Net (fiction) this year for her story, The Intruder.

Scotti is also a poet, with recent inclusions in Chautauqua, Nimrod, The Women Artists Datebook, and in Women in a Golden State (Gunpowder Press).  You can read and hear some of her poems without a paywall on her site or at The New Yorker.