The Thing About Reviews

All authors want reviews. Okay, maybe not want them the way we want love and chocolate and oodles of money, but we need them. And just the good ones, thank you. They're important for the exposure they generate, and if you're lucky enough to land a few of these priceless things pre-publication and have a half-decent marketing plan in place, you can hit the ground running. Creating early buzz is important when so many hundreds of thousands of books come out every year. That's hundreds of thousands. I try not to think about that part.

Thing is, getting someone to agree to a review is a crapshoot. Even if you've managed to ink out the best book of the year, there'll be plenty of folks who don't like it. Trust me on this. Say your reviewer is a woman who was once jilted by a guy who just happens to have the same name as your lead character, lost a child the exact age as one who dies in your story, or has a fight with the boyfriend or the boss the day she sits down to read your novels. Maybe yours is the hundredth mystery/romance/science fiction/western (take your pick) she's reviewed this year and she's simply had it. Makes herself a big old martini, sits down at the keyboard and takes her snarly mood out on little-old-you.

Paying for reviews is a whole other ball of wax. Some of the most prestigious review sites charge big bucks for a review they promise will be completely honest, which doesn't necessarily mean "good" (see above). That means you can pay a lot of money for the chance to get majorly, where-did-I-hide-those-razorblades depressed. These companies charge a ton for their reviews because they know that you know that if by some miracle you manage to eek out a good one, you've got a leg up in the game.

All of this by way of explaining, perhaps, that I'm fully aware the absolutely stunning review I just received from Kirkus for Matinicus (due out in May) http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/darcy-scott/matinicus/, had as much to do with the luck of the draw as anything else. Don't get me wrong. I'm really proud of the book, I busted my ass on it, and I'm ever-so-grateful that whoever reviewed it liked it almost as much as I do.

Just sayin'.

On the Road with Hunter Huntress

Here again to tell you about two upcoming Hunter Huntress book signing events.

Thursday evening, February 23, I'll be participating in a "Local Authors Night" at the Nashua Public Library in Nashua, NH (www.nashualibrary.org). A bunch of authors will be there signing books, talking about craft and the long road to publishing. This is always a great night, in part 'cause I can never get enough of talking about this stuff, but also because it's a place to meet some really terrific writers. 

Flash forward a month and a half. May 1st at 7:00 p.m., I'll be at the Booth Library in Newtown, CT for a reading/signing. This one's hosted by a local book club, but is open to the public, so if you follow me and are in the area please stop by!

BTW, keep an eye out for my revamped website, which will go live prior to the launch of Matinicus, and where I'll have an actual events page, but until then this is the place for all things writerly about moi.

Let's Launch This Thing!

Okay, so we're really rolling now. The Book Launch for Matinicus (my double mystery set on the Maine island of the same name) has officially been scheduled, so if you're a planner like me and you're going to be anywhere near Portsmouth, NH on Thursday evening, May 17, please join us at RiverRun Bookstore for a short reading and signing followed by a reception just down the street at the Portsmouth Athenæum. If you've never been the Athenæum, this alone will be worth the trip. Portsmouth's oldest cultural institution, its four floors are home to thousands of books, documents, centuries-old maps and all manner of ephemera relating to NH's Seacoast. Hope to see you there!

FYI...The cover for Matinicus is just about finalized, so be sure to check back!

Changing Publishers

Okay, I promise to be better about keeping you updated. Been offline for a bit while I regrouped. The long and short is that I needed to change publishers to guarantee my vision of Matinicus (the first book in my Maine Island Mystery Series) as both a tree book and an e-book. 

So here's my rant...While it's true that e-readership is very much on the rise and the costs of putting out paper books have become nothing short of ludicrous, it's also true that the world is chock full of people who still prefer to curl up in their favorite chair with the real thing. And when all is said and done, it's about making your readership larger, not smaller. A no brainer, really--well to me anyway. But apparently not to my former publisher's bean counters, who decided to nix my softcover version. That was all it took for me to jump ship. Scary to give up a sure thing for something as ephemeral as artistic vision, but well worth it in the end. So, after a few months of teeth-gnashing and sleepless nights, I'm back on track with "real" books and all manner of e-versions due out in May. Yeehaw!

The other biggie is that I finished the draft of Reese's Leap, sequel to Matinicus, and have sent it off to readers for commentary. One long-time reader came back with the comment "Boy, you do paint those baddies well," and I'm hoping she's right. Murderous scumbags bent on twisted, seemingly unwarranted revenge are too easy to get wrong. Tentative pub date for this one is spring, 2013.

And here's another promise...this one to share the cover of Matinicus as soon as it's ready!

Hunter Huntress Available Now in Kindlle!

Yeah, okay, I know. You've been after me for over a year now. So here I am to tell you that Hunter Huntress is finally available in Kindle format. This is HUGE for me. Back when SnowBooks made me an offer, I never realized that publishing a high-end softcover with a British house would be so limiting--especially one with no US distribution or marketing in place. I was the marketing department; I was fulfillment. Egads.

Now, suddenly, it's available all over the world at the click of a mouse. I'm giddy with the possibilities. Not only that, but later this fall, Matinicus (the first in my series of Maine mysteries) will also be out as a Kindle with softcover to follow, which means I've got learn everything there is to know about marketing ebooks and fast. So much to learn, so little time.

Got any tips for me?

Come On By and Say Hi!

This is just a quick down and dirty...

I'll be at the Manchester NH Public Library tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. for a reading/discussion of "Hunter Huntress." I'll be talking not just about the book itself, but how I get ideas for plot and character, the important role of dreams in my work and my next book--"Matinicus"--a double, century-spanning mystery due out in the Spring. Come by and check it out!

Spring Cleaning

So yeah, okay, I'm a little late with this one. Tomorrow night is the solstice, after all. Have to say, though, I've never been big on the cleaning chores. In this case we'll blame deadlines of the writerly sort. Now these I'm a real stickler about. One manuscript just sent to the publisher, another I'm trying to finish up to get off to my first readers. Hmm...what to do.

I decide to simplify the cleaning bit, focus on a room a day. Sounds manageable. So I start with the bedroom, do a 360, sigh. Kind of overwhelming, what with all those little bookshelves I had my husband build in. Seemed a good idea at the time. Now I see them as the little dust collectors they truly are.

Hmm...more simplifying is called for. How about I just tackle those piles of unread fiction by my bed? Let's see...there's Stand the Storm, The Beekeepers Apprentice, Cutting for Stone, the latest by Chelsea Cain (absolutely love her chilling Sweetheart series), a book by famous mystery authors on the writing of mysteries--now how did that get in there?

I'm like a kid in the proverbial candy store. Where to start? Should I stack them by size? Alphabetically by author? Sub-genre? My gaze lights on Spencer Seidel's debut novel, Dead of Wynter. Why not read now, I reason, stack later? Okay, then. I drop onto the futon, put my feet up and tuck in.

Still spring for another 24 hours, after all...