I’m nearly done revising a digital-only, self-published novella for a charity anthology benefitting breast cancer research. ENTANGLED (9.12.11) has a great group of paranormal romance and supernatural thriller writers and I’m thrilled to be included. Because we’re self-publishing it, and because all the royalties for the first year will be donated to charity, I’m not going to see any money on it. And that’s okay because it’s for a good cause. I’ve written other free stories–for International Thriller Writers and for my website–so I’m just happy to do something that contributes back.

I decided to write a Seven Deadly Sins short story — originally, it was supposed to be 10-15K words, but right now my “short story” is novella length at 27K words. I’m editing it down tonight and revising. (I’d hoped to cut it to 20K, but I think it’ll end up being 22-23K.)

For “Ghostly Justice,” my Seven Deadly Sins novella, I hired my former editor to read and offer editorial advice. I could have submitted the story as I wrote and edited it and it wouldn’t have been bad. But I’m used to a certain level of editing, and I know that every one of my books has been better because of editorial input. In fact, I’ve written seventeen full-length novels and each one I have done one or two rounds of editorial revisions. I would panic without editorial input. And ultimately, if my name is on it I want to make sure it’s as strong a story as possible so that fans of the series won’t be disappointed. I don’t work with beta readers–my editor has been my first reader since book #4. (Books #1 and #2 I had a critique group, and then an agent read them; then book #3 my agent read first.)

There are two types of editorial — story and copy. Story is the editorial that I care most about. Yes, I want the copy clean (and honestly, I’m very spoiled ibecause most of my copy editors have been wonderful) but for me, story is king. The story has to be there–well-paced, great characters, organic conflict. Plus, I want the suspense to be as strong as I can possibly make it.

As the creator, I am so close to the story that I often can’t see the flaws. I know what I was thinking when I wrote a scene or chapter, and sometimes I think something isn’t clear and I over-explain. Or I think something is perfectly clear, because I know what I mean, but it’s not clear to the reader. A good editor can read the book and not only know what’s wrong with each scene, but how the book works as a whole. She can identify the small issues that take the story for good to great, and the big picture ideas that take the story from “this doesn’t work” to “this totally works.”

The Seven Deadly Sins series has two full-length novels, a novella and a short story all in the world I created. Because MORTAL SIN is delayed, I wanted to give fans a meaty story in this charity anthology, so I took a scene from CARNAL SIN where a witch (Julie), when on the astral plane, encounters a ghost at the L.A. County morgue. The ghost is stuck there because she’s a Jane Doe–no one knows her identity. She tells Julie who she is, and Julie’s dying wish is for her boyfriend (a cop) to find out what happened to Amy so she will no longer be trapped at the morgue. “Ghostly Justice” is the investigating into Amy Carney’s murder–it’s my take on vampires.

Charlotte identified some minor things through–confusing sentences, repetition, and some dialogue and character decisions that didn’t ring true. All easy fixes. But there were two big story issues that need fixing, which is what I’m doing right now.

1) Backstory. Some was easy (making it clear that Moira and Rafe are demon hunters) and some is more work (removing some of the unnecessary backstory.) As Charlotte pointed out, only the backstory relevant to the current story should be included, and that needs to be clear as soon as possible. But I’d included information about Moira’s mother Fiona and what happened in Santa Louisa and talked about characters that have no role in this story. All that is going, while making the relevant backstory clearer.

2) Why was Amy Carney not ID’d for six months?

The second one is the hardest. Because they have a recognizable body, she’s from a family who reported her missing, why didn’t they ID her? That’s what I’ve been thinking about all day. Because the whole story hinges on her being a Jane Doe–that part was already published in CARNAL SIN.

I think I have the solution, but it’s taking a bit of time to work it through. But this is what I love about revising–it makes me dig even deeper into my fictional world, my characters, and pushes me to be a better writer, and ultimately a better storyteller.

But writing is not just about WRITING, it’s about editing, a essential piece of the writing process. Which is why when I hear that some people don’t think they need editing, I cringe.

The other night, I retweeted a comment by agent Jessica Faust:

“It concerns me how many times I hear a self-pubbed author talk about taking on marketing themselves, but never once mention an editor”

This stuck out to me because I’m paying for an editor for a story I’m not getting money for because I think that editorial is the single most important component of writing a book after the first draft. EVERYONE can stand to be edited. SOME writers need less editing than others, but ALL writers benefit from editorial input. (And there is the issue of editors who aren’t a good match for the author and that creates creative conflict, but that’s a completely different issue.)

After I retweeted that comment, a fellow writer/teacher said yeah! She wished she could convince her students of that–that one guy said he’d hire a marketing person, but not an editor. Which prompted me to respond with a flip, “If I only had $1000 to spend on a self-published book, I’d spend $800 on an editor and $200 on a cover designer.”

That was an off-the-cuff comment, but as I thought about it I realized I truly believe that. Cover = package (the package reflects the type of story the reader will get in a compelling and graphically intriguing way) and editor = quality-control (does the content support the package? Is the story worth the readers time and expense?)

I recognize that not every editor on the planet is a good editor. And every editor has a different way of working–and sometimes, finding the right editor is like finding the right agent. The first or second person might not quite fit with your style or needs. But when you find that golden editor and you click — you will never want to give her up. A good editor shines a light on the flaws, but doesn’t tell you how to fix it–she leaves the story in your hands. You may not always agree with the editor — and that’s okay. Sometimes, I leave something as is, or tweak it because it was obvious my editor didn’t understand my intent. But I consider every editorial comment on the manuscript.

The other writer/teacher said her student planned on using free cover art from someone he met on-line. Great … if they’re good. But if they’re good, why are they designing covers for strangers for free? Cover art is something else I’m willing to pay for because that draws in readers of the genre who may never have heard of Allison Brennan.

If you’re going to put your name on a book and want to build a readership and go the self-published route, paying for an editor is worth it, IMO. Not just a copy editor, but a story editor.

Now, for something (sort-of) completely different … I’ve written several short stories recently. When I wrote my first short story for the KILLER YEAR anthology, it was one of the hardest things I ever did (and it wasn’t all that great, either–too much going on in six thousand words.) But after writing several short stories and novellas, I’ve discovered the joy of writing short. (Meaning, stories between 10-30k words. Much shorter than 10K is very hard for me!) Writing short helps me write tighter and more focused stories, but it also lets me explore ideas that wouldn’t sustain a full-length novel. (Though, I’ll admit, “Ghostly Justice” could easily have been a 100K word book. I had to consciously remove secondary story threads to keep it as focused as possible.)

Some readers don’t like short stories or novellas because they don’t feel like they have enough story. My mom isn’t a big fan of short stories, for example. However, I grew up reading Stephen King’s novellas and short stories and loving them. For the last decade or so, there’s been a contraction of the short story market — particularly magazines which were the main places for short story placement. I think there’s a resurgence of short stories in the last couple years, not in magazines, but on-line and in multi-author anthologies. I think this is a great thing, but what do you think? Do you like reading shorter stories? What’s the last short story/novella you read that you’d recommend to Murder She Writes readers? Or do you not like short fiction?

I’m back from New York City where I was at first the Romance Writers of America conference then the International Thriller Writers “Thrillerfest.” There are many great wrap-ups of the conferences around cyberspace, and it’s kind of old news, so I won’t rehash it here. Besides, I have little to add.

But one thing that happened–and is still happening–I want to talk about, because I think it affects all authors … and readers. Self-promotion.

There was an undercurrent of angst among authors–and not just debut authors or midlist authors–that they needed to do *more* self-promotion. Many conversations, particularly at RWA, centered around what authors were–or weren’t–doing to promote their books. Bookmarks, excerpts, print ads, on-line ads, book tours, book trailers, romance trading cards, Twitter, Facebook, social media in general, newsletters, blog tours, Skype book clubs, postcards, email lists, free digital stories, cheap digital stories, more web content, blogging, tweeting–and that’s just what I remembered off the top of my head.

In some ways, I understand how an author feels pressure from within to do as much as physically and mentally possible to promote the book they labored over for four, six, twelve months — or longer. That we want to make sure we’ve done EVERYTHING to give it the best shot of success. That if the book doesn’t do well, we’re more apt to look at OUR failings than anyone else’s failings. And especially in 2011, with the uncertainties of the digital market v. print market, the demise of Borders, the rocky road of traditional publishing, and the cult-like pressure by some that self-publishing is the best/only route, our success or failure seems to be put more and more solely on our backs.

And while I understand while authors might discuss self-promotion, one thing I heard here and there a couple years ago I’m hearing from EVERYONE today: That publishers are pressuring their authors to blog and become active in social media. More than one person (more than a dozen people) told me that their publisher/editor insisted they go on Facebook or Twitter and that their resistance could damage their sales. The underlying threat (implied or stated) was that the publisher would be looking at the authors with a successful social media campaign and would be more likely to support said authors when it came to their own publishing efforts.

I want to call a Time Out.

Twitter does not sell books.

And unless you have a blog that’s read by tens of thousands of unique visitors a day, blogging does not sell books.

There is only one thing that truly sells books–that makes a book hit lists, go into second and third and fourth printings, that gets a book talked about–and that is Word Of Mouth.

EVERYONE in publishing who I spoke with about this said the exact same thing: The only thing that sells books is word of mouth–and there is no one way to make that work. There is not only no one way, but there’s no guaranteed way. What works for one author doesn’t work for another. You could have two great romantic thrillers with strong reviews, and one hits lists and one tanks. One gets talked about, one doesn’t.

But the feelings I’ve been hearing from scared authors is that if your book tanks, it’s your fault.

Um, no.

Sure, you may have a hand in your book not doing well, but traditional publishing is a partnership. There’s a lot that goes into making a great package. Let’s assume we’re starting with a strong book in a marketable genre. What goes into making that book exceed expectations?

* Cover design
* Cover quote/endorsements
* Early reviews
* Competition
* Co-op (what the publisher spends for front-of-store shelf space or cyber space)
* Sales enthusiasm (the publisher’s sales force getting excited about the book and helping to generate more bookseller orders)
* Distribution (the book is available through all sales channels, both print and digital)
* Bookseller enthusiasm (because of the above, they read and/or hand-sell)
* Reader word of mouth

ALL OF THE ABOVE matters more than anything the author herself can do. Why? Because if you don’t have at least most of the above items in the bag, what YOU do isn’t going to impact sales. If you have all of the above, plus a strong publisher marketing plan, then anything you do will help impact sales. Why? Because people will have heard of your book. But EVEN if you have all of the above and even if YOU compliment the publishing program, your book still may not succeed. And sometimes no one knows why. And sometimes they do. (Yes, it’s a wonky system.)

Our Toni has a great analysis about why Twitter isn’t the an effective way to sell books. I don’t want to screw it up, so I’m hoping she’ll summarize it here in the comments. In essence, you need tens of thousands of followers to have any measurable impact on your sales. Most of us don’t. Most of us have a couple thousand. I’m nearing 3,000. The other problem is that Twitter is fluid–you post, it goes. For those who are following thousands of people, they aren’t seeing your tweets in their stream. There’s just too much information.

Where Twitter and Facebook and all the other social media comes in handy is when you are consistent, people expect to see you regularly, and so when you post that you have a new book out, your loyal fans will (hopefully) go out and buy it opening week and that will generate velocity and hopefully have the impact on your list placement.

Provided you are already expected to hit lists.

Provided that your books are well-distributed.

Provided that there’s some buzz either because you’re already an established author with a fan base, or because of strong publisher support and great packaging.

You can’t buy word of mouth. You can’t pay people to love your books. (Well, I suppose you COULD but it wouldn’t last more than one or two books … ) To get people recommending an author, the author needs to write more great books that get into the hands of readers who want to read them. The front list (new books) sell the back list (old books) and it’s in the back list that the publishers make the bulk of their profit.

I’m not suggesting that authors not be on social media, or insisting that they need to be. I don’t think every author should blog. I think authors should do what they are comfortable doing that doesn’t impact their writing time. Writing books should always come first. Everything else is a distant second.

The single most effective tool an author has is their book–so getting that book into as many reader’s hands as possible is the most effective way to generate word of mouth. But it has to be the right readers for that author, and that’s something that only the package itself–cover, title, cover copy, etc–can show. This is one reason why I have given away over 2,000 books at my expense over the last six years I’ve been published, plus printed 1500 copies of my digital-only novella to hand out as a sampler of my voice. I give to anyone–conferences, friends, repairmen, whoever. If I think they’ll like the book, I want them to be an advocate for it. (Of course, my single most effective advocate is my mom, and she can’t be duplicated or replaced!)

Authors need to partner with their publishers. Find out what THEY are doing then compliment it with promotion you’re comfortable doing–and that you can afford. Be smart about it. If you have a teeny-tiny print run, buying a $4,000 print ad isn’t going to help you increase sales because no one will be able to find your book. People need to have 4, 5, 6 impressions of something before they really consider buying it (which is why publishers love prolific authors because the NAME becomes the IMPRESSION.) They need to see the book on the shelf, see it in cyberspace, see their friends talking about it. Your efforts may be ONE impression, but if your efforts are the ONLY impression, the reader isn’t going to be fooled into thinking there is a bunch of reader enthusiasm for the book.

What I’m trying to say … don’t be scared you’re not doing enough. Chances are, you’re doing MORE than enough. And, in fact, you may be doing too much. Is self-promotion and social media interfering with your writing time, exceeding your advance, or making you miserable to the point that you hate writing? If the answer is yes, you need to step back and focus on the one thing, the only GUARANTEED thing you can control: the quality of your story.

It’s a scary time in publishing for everyone — but readers are still reading, and they want great books to read. Go write them.

I didn’t have a blog idea for today because my daughter Kelly was supposed to write a blog about the whole Wall Street Journal opinion piece calling (practically) for the censorship of a glut of YA books, including several that Kelly read and enjoyed. And she wrote it, but didn’t finish it, and she’s sleeping now (because it’s one in the morning) and while I debated waking her up to meet her deadline (I gave her five days!) I decided to let her sleep. (Who says I’m not a considerate mom?) I’m going to make her finish it and I’ll post it this weekend. But in summary: we both think the WSJ article stinks. You can read up on responses to the piece at Twitter by searching on the #YAsaves hashtag. Or go read my blog about it at Murderati.

So because I don’t have Kelly’s blog (which, what I have read, is very good and decidedly sarcastic), I’m just going to embarrass her for the next 750 words I’ll talk about one of my favorite subjects: Breaking Rules.

I’m working on my presentation to the San Francisco RWA chapter this weekend, revising my BREAKING RULES workshop. I created this workshop in 2007 (I think) to respond to all the so-called “rules” some people toss around as Gospel, as if the “writing rules” were the Ten Commandments. (I’m restructuring my workshop as a tongue-in-check “Ten Writing Commandments You Can’t Break.”)

The reason I created the workshop was because I was tired of well-meaning writers–both published and unpublished–telling people (read: me) what I HAD to do and what I COULDN’T do.

I’There are some publishers and lines who have more stringent “rules” about what can and can’t be in their books. It benefits you to listen. And, if you’re like me, you’ll twist those rules and give them exactly what they want while breaking every single one of them just because they had the audacity to tell you “you can’t do this.” Okay, maybe not. . . . Confession time: When someone tells me something can’t be done, I will usually go out of my way, lose sleep, work all night, and do whatever it takes to accomplish the goal because, well, I don’t like being told “it can’t be done.”

On any writing loop, inevitably, once a week, someone will post a “rule.” It’s not only in romance, but romance writers tend to talk about the “rules” more than thriller and mystery writers. I’ve heard most of these commandments before. You can’t write in any POVs other than the hero and heroine. The hero and heroine have to meet by XX point in the book. Blah blah blah.

Then this week, I heard something I hadn’t before: that one of the Harlequin lines (I can’t remember which) doesn’t like love triangles. This brand new author who is nearly done writing her first book heard this rule and decided she had to go back to the beginning and rewrite it, though she was torn because the love triangle was so integral to the story.

My advice to her (and anyone else considering doing something like this) is STOP! Finish the book. Edit it until it shines. Maybe this book isn’t for that line. Maybe it’s for HQN. Or MIRA. Or another publisher all together. If the story is good and you love it and your characters come alive, why change it?

Maybe a love triangle is a harder sell. But if it’s done well, it could be the top seller for the month. If it’s done well, it could hit lists. It could make your career … or not.

Playing it safe is one strategy, and I’m sure there are many authors out there who have carved out successful careers for themselves by playing it safe with their stories.

For me, I like bold, both when I write and when I’m reading. Shake things up, do something different, give me a great story. Sell me on the love triangle. Tear me up inside because of the emotional power of the situation. Is it hard? Hell yes. But writing safe isn’t easy, either. In fact WRITING isn’t easy, it doesn’t get easier over time or after ten books or twenty books.

Now, it may be that your voice fits a specific line and the editor of that line said no love triangle, we won’t even read it, don’t send it, and then you can decide to write something completely different for the line that they want, or polishing your doesn’t-fit story into a submission to another house. That’s your choice. We all have to make choices in our careers that, at other times in our career we might have chosen different. Don’t let people tell you you’re wrong. You might screw up and make mistakes, or you might be a huge success. Or both. What’s important to remember is that this is YOUR BOOK. Your story. Be bold and daring and sometimes that means breaking a few rules. Those are the books that stand out to readers, and they also stand out to editors and agents. (Most of the time. There are of course some people who want to play it safe. Bear market and all that. So you always have to consider what’s happening, your voice, your career, your goals, and make your own decisions.)

Then yesterday another “rule” popped up. This one I have heard before, but not too often. Don’t have travel scenes.

Well, this is kind of vague. But the person who mentioned it said that her critique partner said absolutely no scenes where the characters are traveling from point A to point B. And I start scratching my head and thinking, damn, another rule I’ve broken in every book I’ve written.

My rule about travel scenes? Don’t be boring. Actually, that’s a good rule for every scene: Don’t write a boring scene. Something needs to happen. People need to react.

What the rule-monger SHOULD have said is, “Travel scenes are hard because they can be boring if you show too much about the traveling that isn’t related to the story. So make sure the scene is tight and essential to the story, that there isn’t another way to show it.”

Again, good basic writing rule: Make sure every scene moves the story forward.

These kind of rules pop up time and time again. Most people mean well. I originally thought they were all rules by unpublished authors, but shockingly, that is not the case. Many come from published authors who found success by adhering to certain rules, and they generously want to share their method with you.

Except. What works for them might not work for you.

The #YAsaves situation illustrates rule breaking in a bigger, more general sense. There are YA authors who are shattering story rules. Creating worlds that had been reserved for the adult fantasy market, but putting in teen protagonists. Creating mysteries with a contemporary framework. Creating stories with characters who have suffered — through rape, drug abuse, cutting, bullying, and a myriad of other problems. I’m 41 and there were no YA books. At 13, I moved from Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie and Judy Blume (who’d I’d already outgrown, along with Trixie Belden) right into Stephen King. Sure, there were a bunch of “classics” I had to read in school, many that I adored, that were written to be accessible to YA readers but weren’t truly “YA” lit. I’m thrilled with the selection out there today. Kelly had even read books–full-length fiction–written entirely in verse. YA has exploded because this new crop of writers is being bold, breaking rules, and giving readers something they want, and–most importantly–doing it well.

So as I said, I’m updating my workshop for my Saturday presentation. I’ll go through some of the “rules” I broke in my earlier books, and why. (For example, a love triangle, killing off a major character, multiple POVs, flashbacks, prologues–yeah, I break a lot of “rules.”) Please share some of your experiences with rules–keeping them, or breaking them. Do you have an example of something new and different and bold that caught your eye because it threw conventions out the window, but did it so well you loved it? Share!

P.S. I’m behind in getting out books and such to blog winners from the last six weeks. Between deadlines and the kids getting out of school, everything got pushed aside. I’m working on getting everything out this weekend. Bear with me! (My mom’s coming over today to help me organize my office and get this stuff done. Thanks mom!)

The International Thriller Writers (ITW) hosts Thrillerfest in NYC the second week of every July. On Sunday, I returned from the Thrillerfest V, elated and excited and a bit apprehensive.

First, a little about the organization. ITW was originally for published thriller writers of all sub-genres, as well as the lofty goal of being a “readers” group. I think the organization has moved solidly into the thriller writers camp, but with one big exception: the organization makes a concerted effort to reach readers, librarians, booksellers and other industry folks and does an amazing job promoting not only thriller writers, but the thriller genre as a whole.

I’ve always felt welcome in ITW, even though I write what’s marketed as “romantic suspense.” I put that in quotes only because everyone and their brother has a different idea what romantic suspense is and what it isn’t.

(I have my own personal definition of romantic suspense—a hero and heroine working together or parallel to solve a crime or save the world, and they are together—and alive—at the end of the book. Other than that, anything goes—sexy or tame; gritty or light; humorous or serious. I don’t like RS rules because there are so many of us writing RS that I think RS has become it’s own genre, not purely in the suspense camp and not purely in the romance camp. But that’s a subject for another blog . . . )

ITW has developed into a truly amazing entity. They have so many opportunities for authors to promote themselves, both paid and unpaid. They have an monthly e-newsletter that goes to tens of thousands of thriller readers. The board continually develops new and innovative programs to expand the organization but more important, the published authors who make up the bulk of the membership.

ITW’s Mission is “To bestow recognition and promote the thriller genre at an innovative and superior level for and through our Active Members; to provide opportunities for mentoring, education and collegiality among thriller authors and industry professionals; and to grant awards for excellence in the thriller genre.”

You can join ITW as an associate if you are not published by an ITW recognized publisher (though they have a very liberal recognition policy.) Full members can join for free. Free? Yes, I mean it! If you are a published author, you pay no dues. How can this be? Because the anthologies where members write original stories fund the organization.

Currently, there are four or five anthologies on sale now, the two biggest being THRILLER (edited by James Patterson) and THRILLER 2 (edited by Clive Cussler) published by MIRA. A YA Thriller Anthology will be published by Tor in the Fall. I’m the managing editor of THRILLER 3 (edited by Sandra Brown) which boasts a terrific line-up of bestselling and award-winning romantic suspense and thriller authors. Most recently, 100 MUST READ THRILLERS went on-sale. I have an essay on REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier in the non-fiction anthology, the book most often considered the true launch of the romantic suspense genre.

Another amazing program that was announced at the banquet was the USO inviting thriller authors to go to Iraq. Steve Berry and James Rollins are two of them (who I know personally) and I am thrilled with this, not least of which is to help our troops. Like RWA has the Literacy Signing, ITW supports Reading Is Fundamental. Half the profits from the YA thriller anthology (edited by R.L. Stine) is going to RIF.

Because the organization is formed with tiered membership, ITW isn’t bound by many of the restrictions RWA has. But more than that, I find it a place where I fit, even though I have a foot rooted firmly in both the romance and thriller genre.

I’m not writing specifically to plug ITW—though if you want to join, here’s the link!—and the organization isn’t perfect (what organization is?) but they provide access to authors and opportunities that I haven’t found elsewhere. It started in Arizona in the heat of the summer in 2006, shortly after my first book came out, where I was lucky enough to meet some amazing people and forge new personal and professional friendships. Because it’s small—more like a regional RWA conference than a national conference—it feels more intimate and people are generally open and friendly, including some big-name authors like Harlan Coben and Ken Follett and Lisa Gardner (who won the Thriller for Best Hardcover!) and Lee Child and Steve Berry and Lisa Scottoline and Carla Neggers . . . and I could go on.

Thrillerfest offers workshops similar to RWA in that they have both craft and career tracks. But they differ in that two days are focused on “Craftfest” aimed to unpublished and newly published authors; and two days are focused on “Thrillerfest” aimed at both published and unpublished authors, as well as readers and other industry folks. You can buy a package for everything (at a discount) or piecemeal it and attend for just a day or one “fest.” NYC is expensive, and breaking it up makes it doable especially for those who can get to the city for a day trip.

I have a confession: I only attended part of one panel, other than the panels I served on. Why is this so sad? Because there were at least six that I really wanted to listen to. But I was in NY partly on business this time around—my agent hunt (which was successful!)—and because of meetings missed a lot.

I presented my “No Plotters Allowed” workshop at CraftFest. I was surprised anyone at a thriller conference would show up because honestly, I’ve met more thriller writers who plot (though certainly not all—Tess Gerritsen doesn’t plot, Harlan Coben said in a blog interview that he very loosely outlines, and sometimes doesn’t outline at all, and of course there’s me, the insane one, just sitting down and writing with a vague idea and sense of character . . . ) Fortunately, the workshop seemed well-received and I had people coming up to me throughout the week to discuss something I said that resonated with them. Yeah! Not a failure!

I was on a paranormal panel with former MSW contributor Heather Graham (an amazing author and woman, I’ve always enjoyed her books and she’s very fun on panels!) called “Why be Normal when you can be Paranormal?” Jonathon Mayberry, who writes both fiction and non-fiction, made the point that there is so much out there in mythology that we can write paranormal stories from here to eternity and still have relatively original and fresh material, if we know where to look. For example, there are different vampire myths among peoples of different countries and times, and research is just as important when writing paranormal as it is writing a straight thriller.

The next panel I served as Panel Master. Unlike RWA, the “Panel Master” (or moderator) also participates in the panel while leading the panel, creating questions, taking questions, and shaping the discussion. I never thought I’d like to be the moderator (too much pressure!) but I found I truly enjoy it and it’s almost like running a board meeting—I’m fairly competent at keeping people on task and summarizing audience questions so we move quickly. I was the Panel Master of “Is Social Networking a Waste of Time?” I had some absolutely terrific panel members, including publicists and authors who successfully use social networking. The conclusion? SN is here to stay, but find the medium that works best for you, your schedule and your personality. Be smart about it, and don’t let SN drain your creativity. If you are an awful blogger; don’t blog. If you find you fritter away time at twitter, learn to limit yourself. The authors on the panel firmly believed that twitter (and facebook) sells books . . . I am still undecided, but I believe that if you focus on doing what you enjoy, you’ll cultivate your readership, please your fans, and hopefully those fans who enjoy your blogs or twitter posts will be the ones to spread the word about your next book. But drive-by promotion is a big no-no, because readers know. That’s why you need something you can consistently do, on schedule (whether it’s blogging monthly or tweeting twice a day for ten minutes or checking into facebook at breakfast, lunch and dinner.)

There was an industry panel I missed called “Can we innovate more?” where ITW brought in major house publishers and big name authors to discuss what authors can do to help publishers sell books. I can’t wait to get the tape. Another panel that competed against one of mine was “Why do thrillers kick ass?” with Steve Berry, Carla Neggers, Ridley Pearson et. al. There was a panel devoted to innovation with e-books with authors and marketing people who have had successful promotions of e-books. A panel just on forensic thrillers moderated by Dr. D.P. Lyle (I have most, if not all, of his non-fiction books about forensics for writers.)

ITW also has spotlight guests, which are amazing sessions where popular authors are interviews. This year, they included Lisa Scottoline and Harlan Coben. Ken Follett is the new Thriller Master. And then the debut author breakfast, MC’d by Andrew Gross with a motivational speech by Brad Meltzer. I love this breakfast, even though I have to drag myself out of bed early for it on Saturday morning . . .

You can check out the full table of offerings here (PDF), including the CraftFest schedule.

And then of course, there’s the bar . . . which is worth the price of admission!

Now there are always negatives to any organization or people, but honestly, the positives outweigh the downsides, and if you write thrillers of any sub-genre, I strongly suggest ITW as the group to join.

I wish I could offer more insight from the panels, but since I didn’t attend most I can’t. If you have questions, please ask! (The big talk across the board while chatting was e-books—some authors are selling up to 50% of their books in e-book format, but most hardcover authors are at 20-30% total sales via e-book and mass market authors are much less. It really depends on your format and distribution. The business is certainly in flux, but change isn’t always a bad thing as long as you make decisions out of sound business analysis and not fear.)

I still go to RWA, and I still find immense value in the organization. It’s larger, the networking is amazing, and I get to see all my friends If you write romance, RWA is definitely the place to be. And since I write romantic suspense, I can’t imagine not being part of both organizations. After Orlando, I’ll write about RWA!

Some other blogs and articles about Thrillerfest:

Paranormal Romantic Suspense author Rebecca York at the Novelists Inc blog

Meg Gardiner’s “Lying for a Living” blog

Cym Lowell on “Agentfest” (speed pitching)

And don’t miss debut author Brad Parks’ ode to Brad Meltzer!

I’m moderating a workshop at Thrillerfest next week about social networking: Is Social Networking a Waste of Time?

My panelists include a prolific non-fiction author, a popular fiction author, a publicist, and two industry professionals and to say I’m a little intimidated to be leading such an esteemed panel is an understatement (and one of my favorite authors is on a panel opposite mine, Ted Dekker, a fabulous scary and talented thriller author with a Christian bent–I hesitate to lump him into Christian thrillers ala Frank Peretti, because it’s not really the same thing, but there is usually a spiritual undertone to his stories.)

Anyway, I was seriously considering dunking out and leaving the panel in the capable hands of pet expert Amy Shojai, who I adore, and figure since she can train animals surely she can keep a panel of industry professionals in line . . .

But then I was thinking, well, no one will show up because I’m giving a craftfest workshop called NO PLOTTERS ALLOWED. The funny thing is, I LOVE presenting this workshop because it’s both motivational and craftie–but at Thrillerfest? What WERE they thinking when I gave them the list of my workshops and they picked THAT one? Most thriller writers–particularly wannabe thriller writers–think you have to plot. No one is going to show up. Everyone will avoid me. And thus, avoid my social networking workshop.

Yet . . . I’ve committed, and in the vein of research, I’m asking YOU, dear MSW readers, to give me YOUR very biased opinion about social networking. Because honestly? It’s biased simply because you’re reading this blog! You are 1) on-line; 2) visiting an author blog; 3) likely commenting on said author blog. And because you’re visiting THIS blog, you likely visit OTHER blogs, and because you visit a multitude of blogs, you likely check out other media . . . Facebook, Twitter, MySpace . . . I know there are more, but I don’t “Link In” and honestly, I can’t maintain one more site.

I need to know, for my very unscientific research this week, some answers. And if you comment, I’ll enter you in a drawing for ANY of my books–your pick. THREE people will win a book, signed, of their choice. (I have seventeen if I include my anthologies.)

BLOGS:

On average, how many blogs do you visit a week? How many relate to books/authors? Are you more likely to participate (comment) if there is a prize offered or if the subject matter of the blog moves you to comment? What do you like most about the blogs you visit? What has turned you away from blogs in the past?

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES:

Do you belong to more than one social networking site? (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.) Do you get the same benefit from them, or different benefits from them? What do you like/dislike about the sites in general? (MY BIG PET PEEVE? FACEBOOK WON’T LET ME HAVE MORE THAN 5,000 FRIENDS.) Have you ever bought a book because you first “met” the author on-line — or heard about the book/author on-line and when you saw it at the store you picked it up? Have you found that you “like” an author MORE or LESS after getting to know their public face?

GENERAL:

Do you think authors spend too much time “in public” (on-line)? If YES, why? If NO, what do you like about an author’s “public” face? Dislike? What do you like most about the authors you “know?” What do you like least? All things being equal, is there too much social networking, just enough, or not enough?

Would you rather have a rare “event” (i.e. live chat, message board, video interview) once a year/twice a year or regular access to your favorite authors?

Do you have anything else to share? Pros and cons, all comments are welcome!

NOW, how am I going to use this information? I don’t know . . . but I hope to have a snapshot of what people active on-line think of social networking to incorporate into my questions for my panelists. I will report back and share what I’ve learned in two weeks!

Thank you for participating in this very informal survey! Have a wonderful Independence Day. I plan on watching my favorite Independence Day movie — the musical, 1776!

P.S. If you haven’t bought your copy of CARNAL SIN remember that it’s on sale now!