Alec Peche's Blog - Posts Tagged "mystery-books"
Follow up to Bochercon 2014
The forty-fifth Bouchercon in Long Beach, California, was my first B-Con. I came away with new knowledge in so many different ways. The first thing I learned was the convention name is pronounced like voucher with a “B” rather than Boo-cher-con as I had been pronouncing it. I still have to pause and hear the word voucher in my head before saying it aloud.
I love the spirit of volunteerism that exists at the convention. It was a meeting of ‘pay-it -forward’ souls. As a volunteer at the registration table on the second day, I had looked at what author packets were remaining to be distributed. I had the enormous good luck to distribute Sue Grafton’s packet to her. I have met many famous people in my life and I can’t remember where in my past I uttered the most inane phase - “Oh, I love your books!”. Duh, that might be why she has sold millions. Gracious writer that she was, she just wanted directions to all the meeting rooms. Kudos to Ingrid, and her team for doing such a fabulous job with an all-volunteer workforce.
As I wrote in my pre-conference blog post, I had nearly every hour of every day filled in with some wonderful panel discussions. I loved author speed dating. I had two minutes to describe the four books of my series. I reached probably one-hundred readers face to face. What an opportunity!
I was happy to hear some recurring themes by several authors. I was amazed how many writers use characters from real life in their books. Most of the characters in my books are modeled after people that are or have been in my life. I also heard that my fellow authors don’t kill children or puppies. Nothing turns me off as a fan faster than the death of a child or a dog in a book.
Then there are the books….I have eighteen new books on my bookshelf, most of them signed by the author. I don’t need to buy another book for a year! I also wrote notes during the panels to get this or that author’s book, so add another eighteen to my reading list.
Despite the spirit de corps of the writers, Bouchercon is a real reality check. You see so many quality authors that you have to compete against for the reader’s attention. When you hear the very successful authors say that are worried about their next book being a success, you have a sense of the depth of desire to make one’s latest release as good or better than the previous forty books. As a new writer, I saw the mystery awards mountain in front of me that I’ll likely never climb.
I have my first book signing coming up in 3 months and I was happy to hear of the book signing stories of Jeffrey Deaver, JA Jance, and Simon Wood. Another author bemoaned being placed next to Sara Paretsky for a signing. Her line was out the door and he had no one in front of him. One author told me he was happy when he had to sign fifteen books at a book store. This is all helpful for setting my expectations when my book signing day arrives.
On the social media front, I learned a lot about Twitter, and advertising on Facebook, Goodreads, and Google Ads. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of all of these methods to get the word out on your book. On Sunday it was refreshing to hear the agents and Editors panel talk about how they select books, how you need to track analytics, and advice on the buying behavior of Barnes and Noble.
My favorite quote that I walked away with was from Michaela Hamilton of Kensington Books. Her comment was that “Their books are about escape”. They want to provide the reader with an escape into the story. That fits so well with my own personal perspective of I simply aspire to entertain the reader with the story I have invented.
Thanks to all the volunteers and organizers that made this meeting fabulous!
I love the spirit of volunteerism that exists at the convention. It was a meeting of ‘pay-it -forward’ souls. As a volunteer at the registration table on the second day, I had looked at what author packets were remaining to be distributed. I had the enormous good luck to distribute Sue Grafton’s packet to her. I have met many famous people in my life and I can’t remember where in my past I uttered the most inane phase - “Oh, I love your books!”. Duh, that might be why she has sold millions. Gracious writer that she was, she just wanted directions to all the meeting rooms. Kudos to Ingrid, and her team for doing such a fabulous job with an all-volunteer workforce.
As I wrote in my pre-conference blog post, I had nearly every hour of every day filled in with some wonderful panel discussions. I loved author speed dating. I had two minutes to describe the four books of my series. I reached probably one-hundred readers face to face. What an opportunity!
I was happy to hear some recurring themes by several authors. I was amazed how many writers use characters from real life in their books. Most of the characters in my books are modeled after people that are or have been in my life. I also heard that my fellow authors don’t kill children or puppies. Nothing turns me off as a fan faster than the death of a child or a dog in a book.
Then there are the books….I have eighteen new books on my bookshelf, most of them signed by the author. I don’t need to buy another book for a year! I also wrote notes during the panels to get this or that author’s book, so add another eighteen to my reading list.
Despite the spirit de corps of the writers, Bouchercon is a real reality check. You see so many quality authors that you have to compete against for the reader’s attention. When you hear the very successful authors say that are worried about their next book being a success, you have a sense of the depth of desire to make one’s latest release as good or better than the previous forty books. As a new writer, I saw the mystery awards mountain in front of me that I’ll likely never climb.
I have my first book signing coming up in 3 months and I was happy to hear of the book signing stories of Jeffrey Deaver, JA Jance, and Simon Wood. Another author bemoaned being placed next to Sara Paretsky for a signing. Her line was out the door and he had no one in front of him. One author told me he was happy when he had to sign fifteen books at a book store. This is all helpful for setting my expectations when my book signing day arrives.
On the social media front, I learned a lot about Twitter, and advertising on Facebook, Goodreads, and Google Ads. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of all of these methods to get the word out on your book. On Sunday it was refreshing to hear the agents and Editors panel talk about how they select books, how you need to track analytics, and advice on the buying behavior of Barnes and Noble.
My favorite quote that I walked away with was from Michaela Hamilton of Kensington Books. Her comment was that “Their books are about escape”. They want to provide the reader with an escape into the story. That fits so well with my own personal perspective of I simply aspire to entertain the reader with the story I have invented.
Thanks to all the volunteers and organizers that made this meeting fabulous!
