Blessings to All!

As 2012 breathes down my neck, I want to thank all of you authors and industry experts who graciously took the time to answer questions about your writing habits and tell me and the wonderful followers of this blog about your books. With the economy still ailing, I hope I helped you in some small way with book sales, or at the very least, visibility. Many readers are looking for good books, but aren't quite sure where to find them. This blog gives authors a chance to entice, and I must say I've purchased a number of the books mentioned this year. But that's not the best part, in my opinion.

I've met so many wonderful people all over the world, some who've become cyber buddies, and others I've had the privilege of meeting in person at book signings, conferences, or quite by accident. As 2011 winds down, I extend my cyber arms to hug each of you who stop by this blog. I hope you will continue to drop. At the present time, I'm working hard to complete The Goose Parade of Old Dickeywood for its 2012 publication. I'm also writing scenes for Punch Street, the next Logan Hunter Mystery. My book shelf is filled with research on a medieval ancestor of mine, and I plan to write an historical mystery about him ONE OF THESE DAYS.  

Please stop by and keep us informed about what you're reading or writing. I am inviting all who enter here to guest blog on my site during 2012. I'd love to know what readers look for, what reviewers have to say, and how editors and publishers pick through the masses to find gems.

Enjoy the last days of 2011 and plan to celebrate 2012 every day in some way. We have so many blessings in our lives. I count you among mine.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Series and Non-series books

It's been quite a while since I posted anything about my own work. I've been interviewing and showcasing others. But this morning, I thought I'd post about my own series and the current project, a non-series book. When I wrote my first book, I ran into the same problem so many of us face:  plenty of rejections. After months of trying to write the sequel and getting nowhere with the first novel, Genesis Beach, I self-published. I had a fairly good experience with it until I tried to get the book into chain stores and got the cold shoulder at every turn. To shorten the story, I was thrilled when L&;L Dreamspell, a small Houston-based publisher, signed me. They picked up Genesis Beach, much to my delight, and gave me the opportunity to rewrite and strengthen sections of the book. They also created a cover with major impact. There are currently four novels in the Logan Hunter Mystery series.

Genesis Beach is set along the North Carolina Crystal Coast with a quirky and gutsy young female SBI (state bureau of investigation) agent. The second novel, Just North of Luck, is set in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains and showcases Madison County and Asheville. I really upped the ante in this one by having a serial killer and getting into his brain or rather having him in mine. It truly was a scary time for me since I carried this character around in my head for months. I was relieved to finish the book and have him move out of my space. In this book, Logan meets Chase Railey, a Madison County detective who works with her on the multiple murders, all gruesome and not fitting a serial killer mold.


In Hell Swamp, Logan thinks she can take a few days off, her supervisor assigns her to investigate a murder at Black River Plantation, four miles from where she spent her childhood. She heads to Pender County begrudingly and confronts a sheriff and deputies who failed to contain the crime scene, creating a nightmare for Logan. As she begins to question deer hunters in the area, she learns that the victim had many enemies and nobody is stepping forward to help her find the murderer.  When she eventually finds the killer, she and the entire rural community are shocked beyond belief at the circumstances that led to murder.
Chase comes in to help her with this case, but a misunderstanding leads to a strained relationship. When the couple are trapped and nearly fried by an arsonist's forest fire, they vow to work things out if they survive. By the end of the book, Chase proposes. He is sworn into the SBI.

As Logan leaves her bridal shower in the fourth novel, Sin Creek, she is paged to a local university campus where the body of a young student has been discovered. Even though she and Chase make it down the aisle, they are often assigned different cases across the state, and Chase's terminally ill mother dies in Asheville, sending him home to handle the arrangements and leaving Logan to work with an obnoxious agent sent in to help. Logan and Farris McCracken (Crack) don't get along. The tension is deafening and distracting, but the investigation moves along...right into the pornography industry. Logan is incredibly uncomfortable about having to follow Tit (Thomas Irving Trollinger)who appears to be the porn king. She ends up on a ferry dressed as a bar maid and discovers that Crack is also onboard. When she has to make a hasty retreat in a lifeboat, Crack jumps in and drives her 4-inch heel through the raft, causing it to spring a leak. They end up swimming to a small island in the middle of the Cape Fear River, hoping the river alligators don't notice them. Logan is relieved when Chase returns to help, but she has no idea how her life will change before the investigation is over.

All of the Logan Hunter books are set in North Carolina, where I've hung out all my life. There's so much beauty here, so many dialects and personalities. I love this state!

I'm in the planning stages of the fifth Logan Hunter Mystery, tentatively entitled Punch Street. But I have been working on a non-series novel about lifelong friends, Mackie Sue Beanblosson and Daisy Marie Hazelhurst, in their sixties, going through hot flashes, weight gain, marital problems, and trying to hold down jobs. You know, a day in the life sort of thing.  The book is entitled The Goose Parade of Old Dickeywood. It's entirely different from the Logan Hunter series, but I am having fun with it. I hope to have it ready for publication in 1212, but I really need to get busy.

Video trailers for Just North of Luck, Hell Swamp, and Sin Creek are over at Youtube.com  All books are available in print and ebook from the publisher, online stores, or through my site, www.susanwhitfieldonline.com  I hope I've whet your appetite. Leave a comment for a chance to win the book of your choice!

Making Decisions About Publishing and Promoting

Many writers don't know where to turn on the issue of publishing. I have friends who've had a different publisher for every book, and friends who've published the entire series online or paid to have them published, and friends who were lucky enough to strike gold with a large publishing company.

Several frustrated author friends have asked my opinion about whether to just go ahead and pay to have them published, stick with a traditional publisher who isn't doing a darn thing to help them distribute or promote, or to try an array of different publishing options.

That's tough to answer. When I finally "completed" Genesis Beach, editing it over forty times and hiring a professional editor to make certain it was in great shape, I searched long and hard for an agent, and finally after a multitude of rejections with no explanation, paid to have it published. I believed in myself and my story. What I didn't realize (and nobody told me, not even the editor) was that I had used far too much passive voice in the book. You'd think as a former English teacher I'd have realized that, but I was so caught up in the story and my characters that somehow it never occurred to me. Living in a rural area with no other writers around and few folks I trusted willing to be readers, I did it alone for the most part. The nearest critique group (other than poets) was over an hour's ride away. 

The company I chose for Genesis Beach did a fine job and were great to work with. They listened to my concept for the cover but I eventually went with their idea as long as the cobalt blue remained and there was a navel orange on the cover somewhere. Genesis Beach, available in hardcover and paperback and eventually in digital, sold well and had I been able to get some respect at book stores, life would have been great. Unfortunately as soon as stores learned that I'd paid to have it published, they wrote me off as not worth their time, even the one and only bookstore in my home county! Frustration mounted because I was already deep into book two, Just North of Luck. 

After going through the same painful search and rejections, I decided to pay a different publisher who promised better distribution of my book. I pretty much told them exactly what I wanted the cover to look like. I was blown away with it and it got rave reviews and won awards. The book's construction was not quite as good as Genesis Beach but still a good quality paperback. Sales of Genesis Beach actually improved once Just North of Luck was released. Then came questions about why I had two different pubs. I'm still not sure how to answer that one except that I wanted to see if I could find something better. I didn't.

By the time Hell Swamp was ready to be queried, I had fans and allies who offered to tell their traditional publishers that I was a good writer. Wow! That's when I realized just how much networking and paying it forward works. I have to thank Sylvia Dickey Smith for reading Just North of Luck, doing a blurb, and recommending me to her publisher, L&L Dreamspell, who offered me a contract for Hell Swamp in fifteen days! That was awesome! Since that time, Dreamspell has also picked up Just North of Luck and made the cover even more eye-catching.

Sales again improved for Genesis Beach and Hell Swamp was doing great. Just North of Luck enjoyed a short spurt of success after the new release but soon floundered again. Some readers said it was "just too intense" for their liking. I have to admit it has a more than generous amount of graphic violence, something I never thought I'd write. But still, with a serial killer on the loose, it's difficult to gloss over what happens. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I was fortunate enough to have Dreamspell offer to publish my first cookbook, Killer Recipes, something I never expected to do, but Life has a way of taking us where we need to go, doesn't it? A multitude of you guys submitted wonderful recipes for a little free promotion, and we are donating the money to The American Cancer Society through our local Relay For Life events in hopes of killing cancer in our lifetimes. We have the largest Relay in North Carolina here in Wayne County. I'm so proud of that.

Sin Creek is now in Dreamspell hands but not yet released. I hoped to have copies for Christmas giving, but I'm sure the publishers are overwhelmed with their tremendous growth this year. If I lived in Houston, I'd gladly volunteer to help them just to learn the publisher's perspective. I'm sure it wouldy truly be eye-opening.

So, I've paid to have books published and I've been fortunate enough to sign a contract with a small but impressive publishing company that's going through growing pains.

 I have to emphasize that you as a writer hire a professional editor before your querying process begins. Yes, it will cost you, but it'll cost you more in the long run if you don't, because if readers don't like one of your books, they won't buy the rest. That still doesn't mean you'll sell a mountain of books. I have to admit here that I'm in the process of rewriting Genesis Beach because I feel that if it were better with more active voice perhaps more readers would buy the entire series. I've learned much since that book was released in 2007. It's time to make it right.  I hope that my present publisher will take an interest in it as well, and the entire Logan Hunter Mystery series would be under the same logo. There are differing opinions about whether that's a good thing. From my view, I like the convenience and de-cluttering of moving every book to the same publisher. How do you feel about that?

YOU must promote, promote, promote every way you can. The publisher will tell you upfront that it's primarily your responsibility. A small pub simply doesn't have the resources. Set up a blog if you haven't already. Invite people who can make a contribution to guest on your blog. Join Facebook. Some folks also like Twitter and other online social networks. Booktown.ning.com is also a good site for writers and there are many more worthy sites out there. Set up a schedule so that you don't spend all writing time at online sites. Maybe check in a few times a week. I can't tell you how many wonderful friends I have met through those sites. I've had hundreds of guests on my blog and have been invited to guest on many in return. It's all free. Only takes a few minutes to set up or answer questions. Be sure to send your book cover images and your picture so people can identify you. Don't turn down any free opportunity to promote yourself, but be wary of folks who want to "help" you for a large fee. I'd be interested to know if you've found a great promoter who is reasonable in price with great results.

No, I don't have the answers. I think each of us has to look at our situation and make the best decisions we can about publishing. How do you make decisions about publishing and promoting?  All commenters will be entered into a drawing for a free copy of one of my books (your choice).