What I'm Working On

As soon as I finished FINAL JUROR earlier this year I started work on my 6th Brad Frame mystery. It is called EMBALMED. Brad and Sharon are once again working on dual cases, this time as a joint effort.

For those familiar with the series, you'll recognize the name Nick Argostino. Nick is a Philadelphia police detective and a partner in Brad's detective agency. Nick is in trouble in this story, having been accused of assaulting a fellow officer. Nick is bummed and his life needs focus, which he is getting with Brad and Sharon's help.

At the same time, they've been contacted by a bank's trust department on behalf of a woman with Alzheimer's who used to work for Brad's father. Her brother is missing and Brad is charged with finding him.

Thanks to the help of my local writers' group, which keeps me on target by expecting a new chapter of the story to critique each week, I'm nearing the end of the 65,000 word novel and hope to have it published in the near future. Please don't pin me down on what I mean by "near future." :-)

While taking breaks from this writing project I've begun on a new "standalone" novel of suspense. The title of this newest book is COLD OATH. I suspect it will take me the better part of a year to finish it with publication before the end of 2016.

I love working with Brad and Sharon and finding new adventures for them, but I'm equally excited at the prospect of bringing a new story to life.

You can check out all of my books and short stories at www.rayflynt.com. Tell your friends. The first Brad Frame story is only 99 cents for Kindle or Nook.

Having a Business Plan

I read recently that writers should develop a business plan to set forth the goals for their writing. The article indicated that the plan needn't be fancy or long and made a few suggestions, such as the author's desire to improve his writing with each new book.

I take that as a given, since I'm always striving for ways to be a better writer. On one level, the more you write the easier it becomes, but I find myself being more critical and revising many more times - even in the early stages of writing.

Back to that plan. If I were honest, I'd say my goal is to sell more books than Stephen King and James Patterson combined, and to make J K Rowling's bank account look like chump change.

<sigh> Not going to happen, I know.

Perhaps my dream of having Oprah recommend my books isn't out of the question? Okay, you're right. That won't happen either.

My first Brad Frame Mystery was published by Five Star - a small press. I think it had a print run of 500, enough to enable them to pay off the advance they had given me. I was so excited to finally be published that I wasn't thinking about the marketing challenges. My publisher wasn't spending much money to market the book. They sent out review copies, but (I later learned) without enough lead time to attract reviews from the major book reviewers, so it didn't get that many reviews. Although I must add that the ones it did get were quite favorable.

Since that first book, all my other novels have been self-published. I've written six books so far, and working on my seventh.

Without ever adopting a formal business plan, my hope all along was that with each book I wrote more people would learn about my writing. It's been ten years since my first book was published. Within the past year, I've heard of three instances where people learned about my most recent book, loved it, and then bought (and read) all of the other ones. That part of my plan is working... just slowly... and Stephen King, James Patterson, and J K Rowling have nothing to worry about. Yet. :-)

I also read an article (see, we authors read in addition to writing) that writers should submit their work to contests as a way of getting noticed. I recently learned that LADY ON THE EDGE (pictured above) is a finalist for a Royal Palm Literary Award. Results will be announced in October. Stay tuned.

I hope your plan will include giving my books a try. You can read all of the opening chapters at www.rayflynt.com - just click on the tabs at the top of the home page for mysteries and suspense and then click the link for the openings.

Networking Tips for Indie Authors - A Guest Blog by Mary Jeddore Blakney

Cooperation is essential to success in today's business world. And as Victoria Dougherty points out in her article "Rivals, Colleagues and Friends," this wasn't always the case in publishing, but it is now.

I met Ray Flynt several years ago after posting a review of his political thriller Kisses of an Enemy (which I loved, by the way). That eventually led to his hiring me to line edit his latest book, Final Juror. After that, he referred me to his friend Thomas John, who hired me for his novel The Healing of Reverend James. And the chain goes on.

Here are five networking tips I've learned from Victoria, Ray, Thomas and others:

·         Don't spam or harrass. There's probably no quicker way to get dropped from a great network than by sending out "WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO BUY MY BOOK?!!!" messages. An ancient sage once said, "Let another man praise thee," and that's the beauty of networking. As humans, we're much more receptive to recommendations than self-promotion. Go ahead and let people know you wrote a book, but let others do the praising.

·         Sincerely help your colleagues. As much as we may tend to see fellow writers as competition, the fact is that readers really do read more than just one author. And they're usually eager to get their hands on a book that has been recommended by a writer they love.

·         Be honest, diplomatically. On the one hand, it pays to help your fellow authors promote their books, because you want them to do the same for you. On the other hand, you don't want to ruin your reputation by recommending a poorly-written book. So what do you do?

o   You can often find something positive but true to say about either the book or the author. ("Roger Writer taught me everything I know about Smashwords, and now his own book is coming out. It's called Undermining Elephants," or "Roger Writer's new book Underming Elephants: I just love the cover!")

o   You can say something neutral. This works for books you're not familiar with, too. ("Congrats to Roger Writer on his new book Undermining Elephants!" or "How do you undermine an elephant? Undermining Elephants by Roger Writer is coming out in three days."

·         Invite your colleagues to write guest posts for your blog. Yup, that's why you're reading this here. That's why Thomas John has a post on this blog, too. And that's why Ray has written for my blog. It's win-win: we both get more exposure this way.

·         Share some of your book space with other authors in your genre. An excerpt of Luke Bellmason's The Canterbury Tales appears in the back of my upcoming book, Damage Control. That helps Luke by marketing his book to my readers, and it helps me by adding value to my book. Just be sure of three things before you do this:

o   The story you're sharing is in the same genre as your book and would be of interest to your readers.

o   You have read the book and can wholeheartedly recommend it.

o   You have the author's permission.

It all comes down to the Golden Rule: networking is about keeping your mind open for opportunities to help others, and letting others help you, too. 
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Thanks, Mary for good advice! The image above is for Mary's upcoming novel. But you can visit Mary's author's page at Amazon to see her other books/stories. It's all about networking.