Matt Coyle is author of the hardboiled Rick Cahill Crime Thriller series, the first of which, Yesterday’s Echo, earned an Anthony Award, San Diego Book Award for Best Published Mystery and the prestigious Benjamin Franklin Silver Award. Library Journal called his sophomore effort, Night Tremors, “[A] clever blending of crime noir tropes with today’s culture.” When starting out, the SCWC was the very first writers’ conference Matt attended. Now he returns, like so many before him, as a Special Guest Speaker with his latest release, Dark Fissures. New York Times best-selling author C. J. Box (Joe Pickett novels) calls it, “An outstanding read!” We couldn’t agree more, and look forward to hearing all about his writer’s journey. Welcome back, Matt!
Post-Publication Perils
The execution of exceptional craft remains the thrust of any SCWC event. It will again in February. But beyond striving to become the best writer one can, we’d be remiss to neglect what many really want to know once they’ve published a book worthy of being read: how to reach an audience that will actually buy, read and review their books.
Yes, stories matter. And as I addressed in this SCWC blog post, good stories, great stories, matter even more. But if people don’t know such books exist, what’s the point? Good writers deserve good money for their work.
That we now live in an increasingly universal “gig” economy is nothing new for most writers. Writers have always been paid to play. Writing on spec? If it’s good enough for somebody to cut a check, you play. Under contract to deliver on something not yet written? Do so and you get paid. That’s the gig. Welcome to Writer Reality.
But even if you decide to go it alone, doing absolutely everything correctly — written a great book, had it professionally edited, invested in a terrific cover, landed laudatory blurbs from respected names and crafted compelling back jacket copy – when it still ain’t selling it’s frustrating. And simply spamming your book’s availability to writer’s groups on Facebook doesn’t much help. After all, if you don’t participate in the community of writers by joining the conversation, why would you expect any to spend money supporting you as a reader?
Marketing for most is tough; easier to do for a friend than one’s self, many would agree. So we’re going to hit the topic a bit harder than usual come February, exploring the proven strategies, tactics, tools and alternative publishing modalities available to authors today in service of selling more books. Be sure to check the Staff page to see who’s already confirmed.
Next update will include the bulk of workshops confirmed for SD31. That should be mid-December. Subscribe to SCWC .COMmunity news updates for periodic email updates. Join our Facebook community for more support and information. And be sure to gift yourself this holiday season with discounted pre-registration so you can join us for our Winter conference. Your words are worth it.
–Michael Steven Gregory
Executive Director, SCWC
