After you have published the first book in a series – Author! Author!:: Anne Mini's Blog

December 16, 2012May 12, 2021 - 3 Comments

Riding the turbulent waves of the current literary marketplace

Here’s a thought-provoking question for the holiday season, campers: as a reader, how do you decide which books to buy?

I’m particularly interested in the logic behind picking up books by living authors — because, let’s face it, Dickens and Thackeray are not going to benefit much at this late date from your patronage. Are you, for instance, the type of reader whose purchases lean toward authors whose work you have enjoyed in the past? Do you operate mostly upon recommendations from friends?

Or are you a trawler of award lists, seeking out exciting new voices? Maybe you’re an inveterate reader of online reviews. Another popular route is to wait until a series hits the big time, jumping on the bandwagon at book 2 or 3.

Or, perhaps due to the persistent nagging of someone like your humble correspondent, are you among the minuscule minority of aspiring writers that regard keeping up with the current market in your chosen book category as a necessary — nay, indispensible — part of becoming a professional writer, and thus make a point of conscientiously snapping up its new releases? If you’re particularly saintly (or particularly aware of the logical effects of readers’ habits upon publishing decisions), you might even go out of your way to buy new releases by first-time authors, both on general principle and because savvy aspiring writers are aware that the best way to impress editors with the marketability of first books is for a heck of a lot of them to sell.

Or do you pursue the route embraced by a startlingly high percentage of aspiring writers, not buying books by living authors at all?

Seriously, I’m curious. Depending upon which source one favors for statistical analysis, somewhere between a quarter of a million and a million fresh titles come out each year, many of them by first-time authors. And with the explosion of the self-publishing market, the majority of those books will not have a major publisher’s marketing oomph behind them.

It’s not as though any of us have the resources — or the shelf space — to snap up more than a small fraction, after all. So again, I ask you: out of that bewildering array of titles, how do you decide which few will grace your bookshelves?

While that question is already roiling in your brainpan, allow me to add a follow-up: is that decision more or less complicated if the book you’re considering was self-published? If so, how did you even find out about the book in the first place?

And, if your mental processes are not already groaning under the weight of so many rhetorical questions in a row, let’s flip the question on its head: if you were a self-published author — and I know that a hefty percentage of you have at least considered it — how would you go about influencing a reader’s choice to pick up your book, given the vast array currently available to amaze, educate, and delight the reading public?

I sense some of you clutching your aching heads and moaning, “Oh, God — it’s hard enough to write a book; now I have to market it, too?” but honestly, these are not questions that authors, self-published or otherwise, discuss enough in public. Indeed, quite the opposite: we’ve all seen countless interviews in which successful authors talk about their craft as though the question of how to sell it to readers had never once sullied their creative processes, right? Apparently, the instant these authors typed THE END, the Publication Fairy tapped them on their respective shoulders, snatched the manuscripts from their trembling digits, and plopped them on a bookshelf in a well-established chain of stores. From that point, all the authors had to do was sit back and wait for the positive reviews to roll in — accompanied, naturally, by the monetary rewards that good authors deserve.

Come on, admit it: you’ve harbored this fantasy, too. It’s stunningly pervasive. And that’s fascinating, for in the literary world as we have known it in recent years, authors are routinely expected to promote their own books — and not just by showing up to publisher-arranged signings and interviews. Increasingly, they are their own book publicists.

So I ask you once more: how precisely would you go about it?

Yes, this is a heavy question for the holiday season; I would understand completely if you would prefer to slide it delicately to the back burner while you slipped out for an eggnog latté and a cranberry scone. But on the off chance that some of you haven’t noticed, I’ve devoted my blogging life to talking about the kinds of practical authorial issues that writers often actively avoid examining in serious detail. Or, in many cases, issues that aspiring writers did not know would be, if not crucial, then at least important to their books’ success.

Sensing a vicious circle? Published authors often — indeed, usually — struggle for years or even decades to break into print, then equally often find themselves unprepared to promote their books. Yet due to the pervasive belief in the Publication Fairy, it’s actually quite rare for first-time authors to talk about what they had to do to become so, at least in a forum in which an aspiring writer is likely to hear it. So while they are actually out busting their proverbial humps to sell just a few more volumes to a reading public that — spoiler alert — tends to buy books by authors whose work they already know, their fans frequently receive the impression that those authors’ only contribution to the process involved writing the book in the first place.

A significant achievement, of course: I don’t mean to imply otherwise. But certainly not the only one on a savvy modern author’s résumé. And certainly not the only one that would be beneficial for aspiring writers to see discussed.

That’s doubly true for writers considering self-publishing, of course. While their counterparts in the traditional publishing world have entire marketing departments to tell them what to do (and, surprisingly often, to change their titles, a perennial complaint of first-time authors), those brave and resourceful souls taking the adventurous leap into self-publishing often do so without a clear idea of what kind of environment is likely to greet their landing, if you catch my drift.

For all of these reasons, I am delighted to bring you a wide-ranging discussion with self-published author, blogger, and all-around fab guy D. Andrew McChesney, better known around Author! Author! as thoughtful and incisive inveterate commenter Dave. Here’s the blurb for his exciting naval fantasy — yes, you read that book category correctly — Beyond the Ocean’s Edge, available now from Outskirts Press.

Is it possible to sail beyond the ocean’s edge to another world? In 1802, Royal Navy Lieutenant Edward Pierce is ashore on half-pay because of the Peace of Amiens. He fortunately gains command of a vessel searching for a lost, legendary island. When the island is found, Pierce and his shipmates discover that it exists in an entirely different but similar world. Exploring the seas around Stone Island, HMS Island Expedition sails headlong into an arena of mistaken identities, violent naval battles, strange truces, dangerous liaisons, international intrigue, superstition, and ancient prophecies.

Sounds like quite the rollicking ride, does it not? But quick: on which shelf would you expect to find this in a brick-and-mortar bookstore?

Think that’s a stumper? Try this one on for size: how would you go about reaching the naval adventure and/or fantasy fans eager to read such a story — say, via the Internet? Heck, how would you even find out what sites those readers were already visiting? Or what books they were already reading?

Dave generously agreed to allow me to grill him on these points, as well as many other challenges that frequently come as surprises to traditional and self-published authors alike. Nor is this the first time he has offered his hard-earned insights: as I sincerely hope those of you considering sticking an exploratory toe onto the difficult path of self-publishing will recall, I blandished have last year into guest-blogging about the practical and absorbing task of choosing a press. You may also remember his second place entry for adult fiction in 2010’s Great First Page Made Even Better Competition and first place in the essay category of 2009’s Author! Author! Awards for Expressive Excellence. Heck, he even painted the canvas at the top of this post, providing the genre-nailing image for his book’s cover.

He’s paid his dues, in short, and then some. Let’s hear what he has to say, shall we?

Here, of course, are the promised links to <a href="http://www.outskirtspress.com/bookstore/9781432780371.html">the book</a> and <a href="http://www.outskirtspress.com/bookstore/9781432780371.html"> the press</a>, but I sense that some of you may be too much in shock to take full advantage of them. I can still hear the echoes of all of the gasping out there. Am I correct in assuming that one of the greatest benefits those of you considering self-publishing anticipated from it was ever having to pitch your book? Or never being forced to summarize it in a paragraph or two, as queriers must always do? And am I also correct in assuming that the rest of you gaspers planned upon pursuing traditional publishing, but it never occurred to you that some yahoo of an interviewer would expect you to produce a pitch at a moment’s notice? Or that this obligation would not hover over every conversation an author might have for the rest of her natural life? Common misconceptions, all — born, I suspect, of that ubiquitous belief in the Publishing Fairy. Published authors are expected to pitch their books all the time, and not only in interviews. Anytime one guest-blogs, for instance, it’s simply good marketing strategy to include an engaging, succinct description; you’d be amazed (I know I am) at how many guest-blogging authors simply expect the blog’s host to read the book and produce a description of it. It’s also not at all uncommon for agents and publishing houses to ask writers to crank out pitch-like summaries for promotional purposes — and had you even considered what you might say at a cocktail party when introducing yourself and your book to a stranger? Oh, stop blushing. To 99% of first-time authors, “So what is your book about?” seems to come as something of a surprise, to put it mildly. The nearly universal expectation that someone who prefers to express himself in writing would constantly be prepared — indeed, eager — to give a verbal pitch anytime, anywhere often comes as a panic attack-inducing shock. At least the first time around. Word to the wise: give it some thought in advance. And you might not want to wait until you have a book in press, either. Aspiring writers often seem rather annoyed by the question, too, if the huge, martyred sigh that typically forms their first response to “Oh? You’re a writer? What do you write?” is any indication. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but hey, it’s my job: from a non-writer’s point of view, this just doesn’t make sense; presumably, you wrote a book because you wanted to communicate. You’re also, one assumes, aware that yours is not — or will not be — the only book available for purchase, as well as cognizant of the fact that books are categorized. So it honestly isn’t all that unreasonable for a bystander to leap to the conclusion that you might want to tell a potential reader what your book is about, at least in general terms. Oh, stop rolling your eyes. It won’t kill you to make the effort tell that nice person who has expressed interest in your work that you write fantasy, Westerns, books about unusual taxidermy, or what have you. Admittedly, you might find yourself having to explain to some well-meaning soul that whose first response to your saying that you’re writing a novel is “Oh? Fiction or nonfiction?” that novels are fiction, by definition, or that memoirs are always true stories that happened to their authors, but that’s a small price to pay for enchanting a future reader, isn’t it? Another common misconception about getting a book published: that somebody else is going to do the proofreading. Professional authors are expected to produce clean manuscript copy, period — which is to say: yes, copyeditors do go over manuscripts before they go to press, but ultimately, if a period’s in the wrong place, within the publishing world, it’s ultimately considered the author’s responsibility. That’s true, incidentally, amongst the reading public as well. Think about how you read published books: if you spot a sentence that does not make sense or an easily-fixable grammatical gaffe, do you find yourself blaming the author or the publishing house? Virtually everyone who notices such things attributes them to the author, alas. Even if you simply made a typo that nobody caught — or if, as is surprisingly common, even if you flagged it in the galleys and it didn’t get fixed in the print file prior to publication — it can harm your reputation. Had I mentioned that it’s a good idea for everyone, even a writer working with the most conscientious editorial staff at the best publishing house in the world, to read every syllable of a manuscript IN ITS ENTIRETY, IN HARD COPY, and whenever possible OUT LOUD? It truly is the best way to catch those little errors. For a self-published author, proofreading is even more fraught with peril — and that, too, often comes as a great, big surprise. Those mulling this route often assume that self-publishing means being able to skip steps in the publishing process. Remember, though, that virtually everything that happens to a traditionally published book in order to bring it to successful publication needs to happen to a self-published one, too. The difference is that in the case of the latter, it’s the author’s responsibility to make sure everything gets done. So one of the most important things to know about a press going into the process is how many of those responsibilities it will be willing to cover — and whether it includes them in the base cost of publishing the book, or charges for them on an ? la carte basis. Ultimately, though, it is the author readers will hold accountable. I broached the issue with Dave. <iframe loading="lazy" width="500" height="281" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lkzJFWkCjRc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"> Scanning for typos and dropped words is not the only purpose of proofing, however. It’s also an excellent idea to sit down and read one’s own manuscript from cover to cover, as it were, before there are covers slapped upon it. Not as a writer looking for places to revise — and as someone who already knows what’s going to happen next in the plot — but as a reader. Many, many writers, including established ones, find this exceptionally hard to do, especially the first time they try it: they’re too close to the text. The classic fix for this involves — brace yourselves — tossing the manuscript in a drawer for a year or two, then coming back to it with the fresh eyes enabled by time. I know: brutal. And for most aspiring writers toying with self-publishing as a potentially less time-consuming means to getting their books out there than finding an agent, having the agent shop the book or proposal around (probably after requested revisions, for a first book), waiting until the book gets picked up by a publishing house (possibly after more requested revisions), working with the acquiring editor and marketing department, waiting again until the book climbs to the top of the print queue, and then seeing it hit the shelves, setting their manuscripts aside until they can develop some distance from the text can seem, well, like just another irritating delay. Is there a realistic alternative? Here, Dave and I explore the issue. <iframe loading="lazy" width="500" height="281" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LZPS93PHTfY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""/> Does the ambient guffawing indicate that some of you caught that itsy-bitsy editing gaffe? You know, the part where I actually say on the tape that we should edit something out? I thought about asking my video editor to revisit this, but frankly, it has educational value: when an author is being interviewed, it’s helpful to know that somebody else will have control of what does and does not end up in the released version. Sometimes, it’s not what one considers one’s finest moments. Hey, my nose was itchy. It happens to the best of us. In other news that may astonish you, virtually every writers’ conference in North America features, if not a full-fledged bookstore (run at large conferences, as often as not, by a major bookstore chain, rather than a local indie), then at least a table upon which works by the authors speaking at the conference will be prominently displayed. Typically, the conference-giving organization gets a cut of the cover price, so do expect to be nudged, and not particularly gently, in the shop’s general direction. And yes, Virginia, it is considered perfectly acceptable to march up to a speaker with a freshly-purchased copy of his book and ask him to sign it for you. It’s encouraged, in fact. I wouldn’t do it in the line for the lunch buffet or while he’s dashing between seminars to, ahem, refresh himself; just before or after a conference event is the preferred moment. Just be your polite, charming self, and you might make a friend. Hey, snap out of it, daydreamers: you were picturing yourself as the author in that situation, weren’t you? Think you might be happier when that happy time comes if you’ve given some advance cogitation to what you might say in that particular conversation? Like, for instance, a nice intro to a brief summary of your next book? And yes, in response to what half of you just thought very loudly: it never ends. The more successful you are as an author, the more often you will have to talk about your work. See why agents and editors might be just a trifle unsympathetic to aspiring writers’ perennial complaints about the difficulties of coming up with a query or pitch? For a professional writer, it’s all part of the job. Speaking of the job of being a self-published author, let’s get back to that question of how to let readers know that your book exists — and that it’s a book similar to those they already love. As Dave points out, the first step is often to think locally. Again, we see the multiplicity of benefits stemming from careful video editing. The important thing to know going in is that we’d just been talking about Dave’s successful attempts to convince brick-and-mortar bookstores to carry <a href="http://www.outskirtspress.com/bookstore/9781432780371.html">his novel</a>. I think you’ll find some of his tactics exceedingly clever — and useful. <iframe loading="lazy" width="500" height="281" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/g-CjS84iNks?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""/> That actually was not the end of our discussion of Dave’s wily outreach tactics, but just so you know, many blogging programs place length limits on embedded video. That’s helpful for a self-promoting (in the best sense) author to know prior to pulling together video to post on her book’s website: it’s a great idea to include a media kit page, and an even better idea to embed video that a reviewer, fan, and/or shameless friend can easily lift to use on other sites. The simpler you make it to utilize a clip, the more likely others are to do so — and that’s good for you. While we’re talking about common-sense book promotion etiquette, it’s also a nice touch to offer such clips to blog hosts if you go on a blog tour. Do make sure, though, that it’s not a chore for the blogger to fetch those clips: you’d be stunned at how frequently an author on a blog tour will say dismissively, “Oh, you want a jpeg of the book cover/an author photo/that great book trailer I made at significant expense? Go to my website; you’ll find it there.” Why is that a problematic response? As any blogger who regularly hosts authors could tell you, it’s a time-consuming endeavor, all the more so if — and I’m sorry to have to bring this up, but it’s a pervasive phenomenon — the author comes to the blogging process unprepared. Since blogging is generally a volunteer activity, usually, bloggers don’t get anything but reflected glory out of allowing an author to promote a recent or upcoming release on their sites, yet you’d be astonished (at least, I hope you would) at how often authors treat their hosts as though they were being paid by the publishing house for their time. Or so many bloggers surmise from how blithely a new author will often waste it. It’s far from uncommon, for instance, for authors new to web promotion to expect the host to make the effort to track down absolute promotional necessities such as a link to the book’s Amazon page, an image of the book cover, or even the link to the book’s website. All of these things are both absolutely standard requests and easily e-mailed, yet authors often react as though the bloggers requesting them were demons poking them with pitchforks. And don’t even get me started on how often first-time authors are flabbergasted at being expected to write a guest blog, as opposed to sitting for an interview. As I hope is apparent in our ongoing encounter, interviewing an author well entails quite a bit of advance preparation: a good interviewer must, for instance, have read the book, something bloggers hosting guests don’t always have time to do. Then, too, if the interview was not filmed, the interviewer must write it up afterward; if it was filmed, the video will need to be edited. Which is why, in case any of you had been worrying that Dave and I would catch our death of cold while chatting outside in our shirtsleeves in December in Seattle: one often sees seasonally-inappropriate apparel in author interviews. That part’s unavoidable, unless you happen to have had the foresight to bundle yourself into a Christmas sweater for your interview in July. (As you see, I did not.) Being the kind of book-promoting author whose very name sends chills of dread down blogger’s spines when subsequent books come out, however, is quite avoidable: your mother was right; being courteous makes people like you. So, as it happens, does coming to a blog tour already having assembled a modest press kit. What might it contain, you ask with fear and trepidation? Could you stand my suggesting once again that having a brief book description handy can only work to your advantage? A 1- or 2-paragraph bio is also always appreciated; so is an author photo. (Remember, that’s the shot that’s going to be popping up for years in Google searches: take the time to make sure it’s a nice one.) Include a link to your website, if you have one; if you don’t, start a blog. (Yes, really: you want your readers to be able to find you, right?) And, of course, if you would like folks to buy your book, you might want to include a direct link to — wait for it — an online source where that’s possible. Do I hear some grumbling? “For heaven’s sake!” authors already kind of miffed about having to go on a blog tour huff, “that’s not my job; my publisher’s publicity department should handle that, right? My job ended when I finished writing the book.” Actually, it didn’t, from your host’s point of view — or, in all likelihood, from your publisher’s. As I may have mentioned, promoting one’s book is now an absolutely routine part of being an author; no one claims that it’s not an onerous endeavor, but that’s hardly the blogger’s fault. And trust me, any blogger you might want to host a stop your promotional tour will have encountered at least one author who has acted petulant about that. Trust me, you don’t want to be that author: a blogger excited about your book can be an amazingly powerful asset, both at the time of the release and when your next book comes out. Being the author that’s notoriously easy to help is a reputation you should want to cultivate. That’s even more in your interest if you are a self-published author, of course. Especially if, like Dave, you are planning <a href="http://www.stoneislandseastories.com/writing.html">a series</a>. Fortunately, he knows his business: even with limited time at his disposal, he’s been investing a hefty chunk of in networking — and started doing so well before the book came out. The following clip also presents an excellent practical demonstration of why one might perhaps wish to batten down one’s hairdo prior to an interview. When we first began filming, there wasn’t a breath of wind. It just goes to show you: in a book interview, anything can happen. And often does, especially in the frame opening a clip. <iframe loading="lazy" width="500" height="281" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/XnmuzOpc1Ts?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""/> Here’s the link to <a href="http://vespican.livejournal.com/">Dave’s LiveJournal page</a>; I would strongly encourage those of you beginning to brainstorm ingenious notions for reaching your target audience to check out how he talks about his writing to potential readers — and to other writers. First-time authors often forget — or don’t realize — that people who write books are also people who buy them, and by truckload; aspiring writers are, after all, among the most dedicated readers out there. To put it a bit more bluntly: if it’s reasonable to expect that readers already fond of books like yours would be the logical readership for — wait for it — your book, isn’t wouldn’t it follow as night the day that those who write books like yours might be similarly inclined? If the sheer amount of authorial effort involved in promoting one’s own book is making your head spin, well, you’re gaining an accurate impression. I cannot possibly stress sufficiently how much it will be to your advantage not to be clinging to unrealistic expectations on this point when you have a book coming out. As anyone who has seen a good book garner strong reviews then founder after a few weeks of sales would be only too unhappy to tell you, the overwhelming majority of first-time authors wake up on release day believing that their books will sell well without their having to devote significant time and resources to promoting them. Even with great reviews — and remember, many print publications have standing policies against reviewing self-published books — authors generally have to put in quite a bit of both time and effort for their books to sell well. Readers can’t buy books unless they know about them, after all. But let’s face it: in traditional publishing, few advances for first books are large enough to permit the author’s quitting her day job — and in self-publishing, that day job is usually paying for the book to come out. It’s very, very easy for an eager first-time author to drop from exhaustion. So what’s a time-strapped author to do — and what on earth was I doing when the still shot got snapped? Glad you asked. <iframe loading="lazy" width="500" height="281" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/D2bSJrUCOIw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""/> I don’t want to engage in too much set-up for the next segment, although it will be our last for the day. Dave and I talked also talked at length about craft and characterization, but for the mental health of my beloved readers, I thought it might be a good idea to wait to allow all of this potentially rather overwhelming array of marketing information to sink in a bit before we moved on. Also, blame my sense of drama — the first viewers of this interview, new authors all, gasped audibly at an insight that pops out near the beginning of this section. I’m inclined to let it speak for itself, except to say: those of you contemplating writing series might want to bookmark this clip. Every series writer I know has wished that he knew about this sooner. <iframe loading="lazy" width="500" height="281" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3jwYoDp2a8I?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""/> Surprised to hear that book promotion involves so much bookkeeping? Virtually every first-time author is, to some extent. I’m afraid there’s no way around that, short of hiring an extensive staff, but I can tell you from experience that the better organized your list of whom to contact when your book comes out — you have already started maintaining one, right? — the simpler your life will be in the months before the release. Keep it current. Why? Well, think about it: will you have the time or energy to be scrambling to find people’s new addresses the day before your first book comes out? Even if you have the stamina of Superman, is that really the way you will want to be celebrating the release? While you are firmly picturing that joyous-yet-nerve-wracking eventuality, I shall tiptoe away for the day. More of my interview with Dave McChesney follows next time, of course. In the meantime, please share your own book promotion bright ideas and concerns — and, as always, keep up the good work! </div>

May 27, 2012January 19, 2017 - 3 Comments

Writing a single mystery is difficult; writing a series can be murder by guest bloggers Stan Trollip and Michael Sears, better known to mystery aficionados as Michael Stanley

Ah, the first long weekend of the warm months, a time perfect for relaxing with family, dawdling on a beach, and/or driving that 50+ miles that news organizations always seem so excited to report U.S. residents are planning on embarking upon this weekend every year. Or so I’m told. I wouldn’t know about it, really: writers tend to spend long weekends working on their books. If their kith and kin are out relaxing, beach-combing, or getting stuck in traffic, how would we know? We’re where we always are whenever we can grab a spare minute: wrestling with story, plot, and characterization.

God bless us all, every one.

In that spirit of laudable endeavor, I’ve planned a two-sided treat of all of you stalwart souls plugging away at your computers this weekend, rather than roasting something hefty on a gas-powered grill. Beginning today, I shall be posting a series of guest blogs by hardworking authors about the ins and outs of constructing a series — or making that always surprisingly tough transition from a first book to a second.

Emphasis on hardworking: in pulling together this series, I made a point of asking authors that had paid their dues, and then some. These are the folks that did everything right for years on end. In these days of ostensible overnight successes and surprise bestsellers by authors who have privately been working feverishly for ten or twenty years on craft, I think it’s vital for aspiring writers to understand that publishing is one of the few artistic endeavors where slow and steady not only wins the race in the long run, but tends to produce better books.

Case in point: today’s guest bloggers, the prolific writing team of Stanley Trollip and Michael Sears, better known to awards committees around the nation as mystery novelist Michael Stanley, author of the acclaimed Detective Kubu series. Those of you who have been hanging around the Author! Author! community for a while may remember his earlier excellent guest posts on book tours, the publication process, and writing with a partner.

This pair is among the most dedicated mystery-writing teams on the planet — and lest you think that’s an exaggeration, let me hasten to add that they live in two different hemispheres, presenting collaboration challenges of which stateside co-authors can only have shuddering nightmares. Yet when I contacted Stan to ~~beg~~ ~~implore~~ ask him to contribute a post to this series on series-writing — and reached him the day before he and his collaborator were slated to complete their fourth novel — he not only instantly said yes, but asked how best to focus the post to assist those of you in the Author! Author! community currently writing series.

That’s what I like to see in an author: generosity, professionalism, and a strong understanding that being an author means being part of a writing community. One never stops paying dues to that community, admittedly, but the rewards are pretty delightful.

Something else I like to see in authors that this team has in spades, doubled and redoubled: a talent for keeping the reader constantly guessing. I’m not the only one to recognize this rare gift, either: their most recent release, Death of the Mantis (also available as an audio book at Audiobookstand), has been racking up accolades like Lincoln logs since its release last year. An entirely representative sample:

Shortlisted for Edgar — Best paperback original
Shortlisted for A Minnesota Book Award — Genre Fiction
Shortlisted for a Barry — Best paperback original
The Strand Magazine 12 best mysteries of 2011.
Library Journal top 10 mysteries for 2011

“Impossible to put down, this immensely readable third entry from (Michael Stanley) delivers the goods. Kubu’s painstaking detecting skills make him a sort of Hercule Poirot of the desert.”

Starred Review, Library Journal

“…a must-read for anyone who enjoys clever plotting, terrific writing, and a fascinating glimpse of today’s Africa.”

Charles Todd, New York Times bestselling mystery author

“…the best book yet in one of the best series going… I loved this book.”

Timothy Hallinan, author of The Queen of Patpong and A Nail Through the Heart

“…the best book I’ve read in a very long time…DEATH OF THE MANTIS is a fantastic read. Brilliant!”

Louise Penny, multiple award-winning author of the Inspector Gamache mysteries

Is this where I get to say I told you so? Seriously, in my humble, notoriously-critical-of-English-prose opinion, this is their best book so far. Take a gander at the publisher’s blurb:

Surrounded by a group of Bushmen, a ranger at a game reserve in the Kalahari is discovered at the bottom of a ravine. At first it is assumed that he fell, but it turns out that he was attacked. Although they claim to have chanced upon the injured man, the Bushmen are arrested.

Khumanego, Kubu’s Bushman school friend and now an advocate for the Bushman people, approaches Kubu and asks him to intervene. Khumanego claims the men are innocent and that their arrest is due to racist antagonism from the local police. Kubu investigates the case, resulting in the release of the suspects. But then another man is found murdered in a similar fashion — this time a visitor from neighboring Namibia. The body is discovered by another touring Namibian — an odd coincidence in Kubu’s view — motivating him to follow the clues to Namibia.

Then a third man is murdered and Kubu realizes that the key to the mystery must lie in the depths of the Kalahari itself. And there it is unraveled in a most unpleasant way…

One of the things I like best about Stan and Michael’s work — and in case I haven’t yet made it clear, there are many, many things I like about it — is the impeccable level of detail. These are the kings of show, don’t tell, and that, my friends, takes serious research in a series like this.

I felt some of you twitching at the mention of the r-word, but honestly, you would not believe how often our old pal, Millicent the agency screener, sees stories with mystery storylines (and, let’s face it, many, if not most, fiction storylines contain mysteries of one sort or another) that practically shout, “Hey, Millie, this manuscript needs a fact-checker!” Although experts abound in fiction, it’s actually rare that a protagonist wielding major credentials comes across as genuinely credible.

So says the lady with the Ph.D. Half the doctorate-sporting characters floating around the fictional ether make me cringe with embarrassment and make me want to mail my diploma back to the university. (Then I remember how very becoming my royal purple doctoral Renaissance cap is, and I resist. I worked hard to look that good.)

Speaking of looking good, I am also not the only professional reader that has noticed Stan and Michael’s incredibly nuanced attention to detail. Take a gander at some reviews by those who know stories about Africa far better than I do:

“The information on the Bushmen…is fascinating. Stanley does an exceedingly good job of presenting their plight and culture in an interesting and sympathetic manner. He also conveys the other characters, both black and white, in rich, multi-layered dimensions… a very readable novel that offers fascinating reflections on life in modern Botswana.”

The Canberra Times, November 5, 2011

“…DEATH OF THE MANTIS is a wonderful piece of work, a novel that is quietly perfect in every way…one of those rare books that transcends its rich genre. While there is a mystery at its core, it is also a study of the human condition, of the best and worst of people who do what they do for the best and worst of reasons. And Kubu is one of the best friends you will make between the pages of a book.”

Bookreporter, October 27, 2011

Yes, those are the kinds of plaudits of which every writer dreams, but let me tell you, it did not come without a tremendous amount of persistent, hard work. These are authors that built their writer’s tool kits, just as you are doing now, and my, has it paid off.

Bear that in mind, please, whenever you find your faith in your writing teetering a bit. It can be done. But you’re going to have to pay your dues — and it’s going to be a lot of hard work.

Join me, please, in welcoming a team of authors that help show all of us why this endeavor is so worthwhile. Take it away, Stan and Michael!

When we started writing our first book in 2003, we had no idea that it was going to turn into a series. We actually had no idea that we would even finish the book. This was our first venture into writing fiction, so we were complete novices.

Our initial idea had formed about 15 years earlier when we and four friends were on a flying safari in Botswana. (Stanley is a private pilot) One evening we saw a pack of hyenas attack and kill a wildebeest. By morning there was nothing left except the horns and hooves. Yes, hyenas eat the bones as well as the flesh.

That evening, over a glass or two of wine, we had the idea that should we ever want to get rid of a body, we would leave it out for hyenas. No body, no case!

When we eventually decided to write a novel with that as the premise, our opening scene had a professor (of Ecology) and a game ranger stumbling upon a hyena just before it finished devouring the remains of a human being. The perfect murder was no longer perfect.

You may wonder why there was a professor with the game ranger. Well, we’d been told that we should write what we knew. We were both professors, so we planned to have our professor be our protagonist. However, even in third world countries like Botswana, where our mysteries are set, the police need to be involved. So we sent a Botswana Police detective, David “Kubu” Bengu, from the country’s capital, Gaborone, to the remote tourist camp where the remains of the body lay waiting. By the time Kubu arrived at the camp, he had taken over as the main character.

This was our first lesson — authors aren’t always in charge of the novels they write. Sometimes, the characters take over.

Researching the Okavango Delta in a local dugout, called a mokoro

It took us three years to finish our manuscript. We quite liked it, so decided to try to have it published. After considerable research, it became obvious that we needed an agent to represent us. After some of the usual disappointments, we eventually found an excellent agent in New York. To our complete surprise, she sold the book, titled A CARRION DEATH, to HarperCollins. To our greater surprise, she actually sold a two-book contract.

Yikes! That meant we had to write a second book with the same protagonist, Detective Kubu.

By the way, Kubu means hippopotamus in his native language, Setswana, the common language of Botswana. Hippos are large, normally placid, and the most dangerous mammals in Africa.
So Kubu is a large man. He enjoys eating a great deal and loves good wine, when he can afford it. Surprisingly, he is also happily married. Like hippos, he is slow to anger, but when crossed is very dangerous.

Little did we realize what additional difficulties would surface as we started on the second book. Some became apparent as soon as we started plotting, others sneaked up on us at unexpected times during the writing. Here are some issues we discovered during the course of writing our second book, titled THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU in North America, and A DEADLY TRADE elsewhere.

First, the characters from the first book who carried over to the second would have to be adequately introduced for readers who hadn’t read A CARRION DEATH. But not overly so, otherwise readers who had started with A CARRION DEATH may be bored with the repetition.

This wasn’t easy. For example, in A CARRION DEATH, Kubu recalls a time when he went into the desert with a Bushman friend of his, Khumanego. It was Khumanego who taught Kubu to see what was behind the obvious — that what appeared to be a boring patch of sand was actually a world teeming with interesting flora and fauna.

It was this experience that caused Kubu to want to become a detective. In the second book, we obviously needed to provide new readers with the same background, but it had to be done carefully so as not to put previous Kubu readers off. This is obviously true of all characters.

Establishing a sense of place

Second, even though the action in THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU takes place only a few years after that in A CARRION DEATH, the characters needed to evolve. People who read a series in order want to see characters, particularly the protagonist, grow. They want to see the impact of important events on character and outlook. One thing we did in the second book was to put Kubu’s wife in danger, which allowed us to show a different side of Kubu’s normally placid character.

Third, and perhaps the most difficult, we had to remember all the habits, looks, interactions, etc., of the characters in the first book, so we didn’t contradict ourselves in the second. One of the unexpected revelations from our initial book tour was how well many readers knew A CARRION DEATH. We often felt that they knew more than we did — and they certainly remembered more of the detail than we did. So we realized that any slips would be caught immediately by our eagle-eyed readers.

We couldn’t afford to have Kubu look or behave fundamentally differently in the second book — the habits he had shown in the first book needed to carry over. Similarly he couldn’t interact differently with the people in his life — boss, wife, parents, and colleagues — except because of the ways he had matured. For example, because of the passage of time and because of his successes as a detective, the previously prickly relationship with his boss, Director Mabaku, has mellowed a little. Mabaku continues to be testy, but slivers of softness begin to show.

So, as we wrote THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU, we found ourselves going back to A CARRION DEATH time and time again to ensure that we were getting things right.

A supporting character in Chobe National Park

Then we started the third book, DEATH OF THE MANTIS, and most of the issues discussed above grew in importance. How could we make Kubu, for example, interesting to those people who had already read two books about him? Obviously, he continues to have success as a detective, but we did two things differently.

First, he is now a father — unexpectedly, I might say. This provided us the chance to bring out a previously untapped aspect of his character, namely how to deal with pressures at home, as well as pressures at work. It also allowed us to explore some quirks in his character. Specifically, parts of his traditional upbringing clash with his self-image of being a liberated New Age man.

Second, through his own fault, blinded by assumptions, Kubu finds himself in a situation that nearly ends his life. How does he handle himself as he realizes he has been a fool and, as a consequence, is likely to die?

We also realized that it would have been a very good idea to build a biography of the main characters as we wrote. That would have made it easy to find out such things as how much does he weigh, how old is he, what schools did he go to, what did his parents do before retirement, when did he get married, and so on and so on? It would also help us to keep track of when things happened in our characters’ lives, particularly Kubu’s. When did the various cases take place? What was he doing in his private life at the time? How long has he been married? Has he aged chronologically in our books as time has passed?

As we write, we have to know or have access to this sort of information, otherwise we make mistakes. And one thing I can promise is that there will be numerous readers who will catch the errors.

Actually, in order to make our writing easier, we are seriously considering trying to find someone who would prepare a biography for us, perhaps as part of a university project or paper. We think it would be an interesting project.

On the fly in pursuit of new material at Tsodilo Hills

We have just finished writing the fourth Kubu mystery, tentatively called POTIONS OF DEATH. Again the same issues arise. How does one write a book that will be the fourth in a series for some and the first for others? I think we now have shifted the balance a little towards first-time readers — the book has to be compelling on its own.

We hope, of course, that new readers will like it enough that they will go back and read the earlier books. Readers of our earlier books, fortunately for us, really like Kubu and his family, and look forward to new ones. So far, we have had no pushback that later books are repetitious.

How did we maintain interest for series’ readers in POTIONS OF DEATH? Among other things, we introduced the first female detective into the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department — a woman who is driven to bring to justice witch doctors who sell potions made from body parts of people they have killed. Her obsession is fueled by the fact that one of her childhood friends was murdered for just such a reason.

In real life, this is something that happens in parts of Africa, and prosecutions are few and far between because the clients are usually influential politicians or businessmen and because of the very real fear amongst the police that any witch doctor under suspicion would cast a spell on them.

In some ways, we have concerns about how the whole notion of witch doctors will be received by Western readers. We hope the story is not pooh-poohed. The reality is, of course, that witch doctors are real. And many, if not most, people in Africa believe in them, to the extent that there are instances of people dying purely because they believed a spell had been put on them.

Bushman painting at Tsodilo

The final issue that we keep in mind is not to be formulaic. We think interest in a series will wane if readers feel that our new books are basically the same as earlier ones. Our way around this is to change the backstory for each book. A CARRION DEATH is a mystery built on the back-story of blood diamonds. The background of THE SECOND DEATH OF GOODLUCK TINUBU is the nasty civil war in Rhodesia in the 1970s and the impact it had on neighboring countries. DEATH OF THE MANTIS puts Kubu in the middle of the fight for survival of the traditional Bushman peoples of Botswana, and POTIONS OF DEATH is about witch doctors who kill people.

These different back-stories allow us to move the location of the mysteries to different parts of Botswana, as well as providing totally different motivations and environments for the characters and stories.

We are about to start the fifth Detective Kubu mystery. This time, Kubu will be involved in the unpleasant results of a cultural clash between the local Batswana people and Chinese laborers who have been brought in to build paved roads. This is another issue of contemporary significance. Throughout Africa, the Chinese are bartering construction projects for access to Africa’s resource riches — oil, iron, coal, gold, diamonds, platinum, etc. Almost everywhere you travel in Africa today, you will see Chinese people. Our observation is that they do not integrate well or easily with local communities — a perfect back-story for murder and mayhem.

Tim and Vaughn Pearson with Nosipho Qolo showing off Kubu t-shirts

Our last comment about writing a series concerns the protagonist. He or she has to be able to keep readers’ attention over many books. If, after your first book, your main character hasn’t garnered your readers’ affection, or at least attention, you may find a series difficult to sustain.
Think about Agatha Christie’s Hercules Poirot, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus, Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch, etc. It is almost always the case that it is these characters that make people continue reading the series, not the plots or stories, although these may also be appealing.

We lucked into Kubu — our readers have a real passion for him and can’t wait to find out about his next exploits, about his family life, and whether any of his diets will ever be successful. Please visit our website at http://www.detectivekubu.com to find out more about Kubu and his colleagues. You can also sign up for a newsletter we send out a few times a year.

By the way, if you are going to write a series, a website is an excellent way to keep faithful readers up to date with what is happening to their favorite character. Browse through our site to see how we provide additional information about ourselves, about upcoming books and events, as well as photos and stories related to our books.

We wish you good luck (which is usually needed) and good writing.

Michael Stanley is the writing team of Stanley Trollip and Michael Sears

Both are retired professors who have worked in academia and business. They were both born in South Africa. Michael is a mathematician, specializing in geological remote sensing. He lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is a tournament bridge player. Stanley is an educational psychologist, specializing in the application of computers to teaching and learning, and a pilot. He splits his time between Knysna, South Africa, and Minneapolis in the United States. He is an avid golfer.

Their first novel, A CARRION DEATH, featuring Detective David “Kubu” Bengu, was published in 2008 and received critical acclaim. The Los Angeles Times listed it as one of its top ten crime novels of 2008. It is a nominee for the Minnesota Book Award, Strand Magazine’s Critics Award for Best First Novel, and Mystery Readers International Macavity Award for Best First Novel.