Farewell Miranda

The Thrill Begins will go dark for a week, beginning Thursday, October 18th, to honor Miranda's memory and the enormous contribution she made to the Debut Authors program

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                                         In Memory Of

                                  Davidae “Dee” Stewart
                                Writing as Miranda Parker

                          February 3, 1973 - October 5, 2012

                       Author ~ Heart health advocate ~ Friend



                   Please add your favorite memory about, or tribute to, Miranda in the comments

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What is the ITW Debut Author Program?

The International Thriller Writers membership includes some of the world’s best-selling authors: David Morrell, Gayle Lynds, Lee Child, Sandra Brown, Clive Cussler, Jeffery Deaver, Tess Gerritsen, James Patterson and many, many more. All of these authors’ careers began with their first book.
The ITW Debut Author Program, under the aegis of the International Thriller Writers main organization, seeks to support our first-book members through the publication process by providing a friendly, interactive community for the purposes of networking, mentoring, promotion, and camaraderie.
Interested in becoming an ITW Debut Author member?
Please note: Membership in the Debut Authors program is for Active-status ITW members only. Before you can apply to the Debut Authors program, you must first apply for ITW membership. More information about ITW membership here
An author may apply to be included in the current or future class, if they are an active ITW Author member, and their novel meets the following qualifications:

• published by an ITW-recognized publisher
• is their first novel published in any format, anywhere
• their book has been released since the previous ThrillerFest, or has yet to be published.

Non-fiction books will be considered on a case-by-base basis. To apply for membership, please contact Anthony Franze.
Join now so that you get the honor to attend these upcoming debut author mentoring sessions:
• AUG 14 - Guest Mentor: GAYLE LYNDS • SEPT 16 - Guest Mentor: LISA GARDNER

What to Expect your 1st Year as a Published Author

by Miranda Parker

This month marks my first full year as a published author. My debut novel A GOOD EXCUSE TO BE BAD released this time last year, the sequel SOMEONE BAD and SOMETHING BLUE releases in two weeks, and book three sits on my editor’s desk being edited as I write this post to you. In honor of my small anniversary I wanted to share some helpful truths about this first year to you.

1. Know when to pick your battles with your editorial team
• Have a flexible and jolly attitude about your story.  After you turn in your finished manuscript your editor will come back to you with a list of edits they would like for you to do, in order to make a better book. Be cool about it and make the changes.  The quicker the better.
• But don’t be afraid to defend certain important things. For instance in my state we called the middle part of Georgia “Middle Georgia.” However, I had a copyeditor who kept wanting to change Middle Georgia to “the middle of Georgia.” I had to express in a respectful and firm way that that phrasing must stand. So know when to pick your battles.
2. Read through that final proof with a fine tooth comb.
• A lot of hands and eyes will be in your book. Yet, some mistakes still don’t caught. So you have to drop what you’re doing and comb through the pages. Usually you get a few weeks or less to read through that. Don’t take it lightly.
3. Don’t be afraid to talk to your editor, but don’t stalk them either.
• One of my biggest mistakes this year was not communicating with my editor at the right time or at all. My mom had become sick and I foolishly thought I could care for her, my family, my business, and write a thriller. Really?! What I should have done was contact her the moment after my mom was diagnosed and talked to her about what was going on. Instead my health suffered and my story. I know I could have written a better story if I weren’t stressed with that looming deadline on my head. She gave me the extension and helped me to write a better cleaner novel. So Don’t make my mistake. Keep your editor in your loop. Be realistic about what you can do.
4. Get to your publicity team at least nine months before your book releases.
• You need to know if you have one or not, so that you can identify any shortfalls you will have to catch in your own marketing campaign
• You also want to work with them on your campaign. They are pros at this and can shed a new light on how your book is perceived to your reader.
• If your PH doesn’t have a publicity department, then build a relationship with sales and marketing. They will use the same marcomm (marketing communications) to sell your books to distributers.
5. You will have to do some direct selling whether you want to or not.
• Public library systems are on a strict budget. They are going to acquire books they believe their patrons will read. If you want to get into your local library, you will need to connect with the collections department manager and the branch manager. And be prepared it is going to take a while.
6. Author Appearances at Bookstores
• Promote that event a month before it happens. Folks won’t know you’re there unless you blow the trumpet early.
7. Yes, you will have to write book two, while promoting book one, and pitching book three, so figure out a way to focus, write and deliver.
8. Do not use an independent editor at this stage, because you do not have time to write copy then send it to an outside editor for clean up. It’s best your editor feels confident in your writing. You don’t want then questioning whether they should have acquired your editor instead of you.
9. Do not use Facebook Fan Page as your website.
10. If your publisher creates audiobooks of your novel, listen to it. It will help you read your story aloud to readers at public events.

I have plenty more truths, but I will end at that. Enjoy your first year, Debuts!
MIRANDA PARKER is the Kensington Books author of the Angel Crawford Series: A GOOD EXCUSE TO BE BAD (July 2011) and SOMEONE BAD and SOMETHING BLUE (July 2012).  She has appeared at the 2011 National Book Club Convention, the 2011 Decatur Book Festival, the 2012 SC Book Festival and has been featured in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, RT Book Reviews and Publishers Weekly. She also contributes to THE BIG THRILL and is the Social Media Person for ITW’s Debut Author Program.  Visit her at www.mirandaparker.com.
If you would like to join the International Thriller Writer’s Debut Author Program please click this link.
If you would like to contribute to THE THRILL BEGINS contact Miranda at mparkerbooks at gmail dot com or Twitter @itwdebutauthors
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ITW 2011 Debut Authors Pinned

Using Pinterest to both Promote and Write Your Next Novel

Before the year comes to a close I wanted to share a great visual tool I use to write my novels, Pinterest. Pinterest is a digital white board that lets you organize and share with your friends online. As an author you can use it to:

• organize chapter settings
• build a visual character sketch
• catalog your book’s year in pictures
• catalog book bloggers who love your books
• the sky’s the limit (I also use it for my Christmas Cookie project)

Pinterest can also help you connect with your fans. I already have fans anticipating my next novel, Someone Bad and Something Blue (July 2012.)

They can subscribe to the pin board to get a glimpse of what the book could be about.

They can also see me put the third book in the series together by subscribing to all my pins.

I thought it would be fun for the Holiday Season to use Pinterest here at The Thrill Begins. The picture above is the Class of 2011 board. (We already have three followers.) Are we a not fabulous bunch?! As I put the board together I was in awe of the amazing talent we have and I wondered at the possibilities for what we could do to leverage our readership if we continued to be accountable to each other, share author goodies that will help us grow, and be a support system for each other. If we have learned nothing this year, we’ve learned that being a published author can be a lonely road if we let it. I hope you continue to participate and participate even more. This blog, The Thrill Begins, is created to help you on your writing journey. If you would like to contribute to the The Thrill Begins 2012, please contact me at mparkerbooks@gmail.com

Again Happy Holidays!

And for the first two commenters, I will give you an invitation to join Pinterest with me!

Miranda Parker is the author of A Good Excuse to Be Bad (Kensington), the first in the Angel Crawford Bounty Hunter Series. Parker has been featured at NBCC and The Decatur Book Festival, the Atlanta Press Club’s Holiday Author Party, and featured in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, RT Book Reviews Magazine, and Publishers Weekly. She is also the Social Media/Marketing Person for the International Thriller Writers Debut Authors Program and a contributing editor to The Big Thrill Magazine. Her sequel, Someone Bad & Something Blue, will be released July 2012. Visit her at www.mirandaparker.com

10 Last Minute Holiday Book Marketing Tips

We have a few more weeks before Christmas, Kwanzaa, Watch Night and New Year's. Bookstores have geared up for holiday shoppers and blacked-out in-store events for marquis authors, so there are fewer available spots for in-store events for authors to grab at the last minute. Public libraries have geared up for holiday events, so again, the newer authors will have trouble finding readings to participate in. So what do you do? Hold off selling your books until 2012? Or are there ways for you to take advantage of Holiday Cheer? I say take advantage. Here are 10 ways to promote your writing through the holidays.

1. Host a free children’s book drive at your local library.

It’s not too late to book a meeting room or space at your local library or smaller bookstore for a free children’s book drive. If you plan it now, you have time to get a local reporter and local blogger to the event. Invite the public to drop off new books at the library to give away or donate to the library’s children’s section. On your event day have holiday punch and cookies and invite the public to pick up a free children’s book.

2. Give your book to local coffeehouses to include in holiday gift baskets.

Four years ago I met with a popular local coffee house in my town by request of the owner. He loved authors and great books. We created gift baskets with my client’s books inside. We also introduced a new Winter Reading Series.

3. Host an Under the Dryer Book Signing at a Beauty Salon.

Have you ever been in a beauty salon? The long wait, the old reading material. What if someone was selling a book to read while sitting under the dryer? Bingo!! A client of mine sold out one weekend doing this event. You can also create holiday spa gift baskets that include your book for the salon event.

4. Write a Christmas story and have it published in your local community paper or regional magazine.

I wrote a story for Precious Times Magazine a few years back titled “Kissmas Time.” From that one story, I received many invitations to write articles for other magazines. I have a mailing list of people interested in my book (when it comes out). And I have had speaking engagement requests also as a result of that story.

5. Sponsor your local Girl Scout or Boy Scout Christmas Parade Float.

I just participated in my town’s annual Christmas parade. Loads of fun. I saw many familiar faces and made a friend of the mayor. Yippee. Being out and about in the community is a great way to build your author name. Sponsoring a float, making a banner, providing costumes, or just chaperoning kids in the parade will help make you a presence. People will become familiar with you. If you are an author, have kids pass out bookmarks with candy attached to them, or take your little Christmas story, package it up, and give it out to those on the parade route.

6. Read Christmas Stories at your local elementary school media center.

If you write for a young adult market, or even a soccer mom market, then get yourself to your local school and read your cool book to kids. Host a Santa letter party.

7. Host an Online Book Giveaway--but not of your book. Instead give away:

• a book you know your readers want like Ted Dekker’s Kiss, which comes out in January, or
• a book that's tied to the holidays like a Paula Deen Holiday Cookbook, or
• a book your friends might be afraid to buy, but would love to read (for instance Carleen Brice’s Buy a White Friend a Black Book Month Project)

Promote the giveaway and the winner by sending a press release to the winner’s local paper.Put the book in a gift basket from your local coffeehouse. Hey, it works for the Avon lady.

8. Host a Holiday Book Party at a local restaurant

Publisher and author Dwan Abrams hosted a party this weekend in downtown Atlanta to celebrate her birthday, the holidays, and the release of her fourth novel Married Strangers. The event was free to attend. It is also a book drive for a Women’s Prison Literacy Project. She’s got local celebrities, book reviewers, and bookstore managers popping through. The event has been promoted on local gospel radio stations, online mags, local papers, and to anyone within two paces of her.You do know that now is the time to throw a party?

9. Build a tip sheet

Center the sheet around your book’s theme and the holidays, then submit the tip list as filler for major local magazines and online magazines your readers read.

10. Be a front door vendor at your local bookstore.

Ask your local bookstore if you can set up a table on the weekend to sell your books. Ask for two tables. One to sell your book and another to gift wrap books as a free service to the bookstore. All bookstore chains allow authors to do this. (However, some bookstores will only talk to publicists or publishers.)

Bonus: contact your bookstore every week to see if any big authors had last minute cancellations for their Holiday In Store Events. But be prepared to get books to the store on short notice.

If you put all this together, you will see that the lesson here is to become a part of your community. The holidays are the best and most opportune times to do this. There’s just something about holiday cheer. And it only comes once a year--take advantage of it.

What other Guerilla Marketing Holiday Tips can you share?

And what are you most thankful for as a writer this year?

Miranda Parker is the author of A Good Excuse to Be Bad (Kensington), the first in the Angel Crawford Bounty Hunter Series. Parker has been featured at NBCC and The Decatur Book Festival, and featured in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, RT Book Reviews, and Publishers Weekly. She is also the Social Media/Marketing Person for the International Thriller Writers Debut Authors Program and a contributing editor to The Big Thrill. A sequel, Someone Bad & Something Blue, will be released in July 2012. Visit her at www.mirandaparker.com

photo credit: macinate