Peschel Press Newsletter for July 2023

Welcome to the Peschel Press Newsletter for July 2023

I’m a bit early (amazingly) with this newsletter because we’ve got two great events coming up in a hurry. We also have word on our publishing plans for the rest of this year, and a discussion about author photos!

Teresa Live On The Internet

Caroline Crampton of the Shedunnit podcast and YouTube channel invited me to chat LIVE on YouTube about Agatha Christie films! She’ll record the program so you can rewatch it any time, even over and over if you want.

So mark your calendars. She’ll interview me on Saturday, 15 July 2023 at 2 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. London time, so adjust for your time zone accordingly.

To watch the interview, visit Crampton’s YouTube channel. No login or signup is needed.

For more information about her, her podcasts, and her book club, visit https://shedunnitshow.com/.

I hope we’ll get an audience full of questions. I hope even more that I can answer them. We’ll find out.

Mechanicsburg Mystery Visit

At 2 p.m. Sunday, 16 July 2023, we’ll be at the Mechanicsburg Mystery Bookshop for our first book launch of “Agatha Christie, She Watched!”

I’ll be doing a program but not the one I did before there. This time, it’ll be a short program on the underlying similarities between “Death on the Nile” (1937) and “Endless Night” (1967). On the surface, those novels have nothing in common, including the structure. But underneath? Oh, that would be telling so sign up at https://www.mysterybooksonline.com/agatha-christie-she-watched-book-launch.

The program is free, we’ve got activities, and we’ll have snacks!

The Secrets of Our (Sort of) Success

Then, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, 1 August 2023, Bill and I will do a presentation about the business of writing and incremental improvements to the Main Line Writers’ Group in King of Prussia at.

We’ll meet at Screwballs Bar and Grill in King of Prussia.

Visit their website for more information. They’re a public writers’ group outside of Philadelphia and they want to hear us talk!

Murder As You Like It

On Saturday, 5 August 2023, we’ll be at “Murder As You Like It,” the annual mystery convention sponsored by the Mechanicsburg Mystery Bookshop. Bill will be emceeing the all-day event and I’ll be there too with our tableful of books. If you’re a mystery fan, this is a fun event. Visit the MMBS website to see which authors are attending and to sign up.

On Sunday, 6 August 2023, we’ll do our second book launch for “Agatha Christie, She Watched” at Cupboard Maker Books. I’ll do a program, probably the one covering 13 Poirots and 7 Marples.

After that, I’ve got Bookstore Romance Weekend at Cupboard Maker (19-20 August 2023). I’ll be there as Odessa Moon on Sunday 2-4 p.m. with A.E. Faulkner and Quenby Olson.

And yes! I will have copies of Escape to HighTower!!!!!!!

At last. Finished at last. Bill is formatting the book as a trade paperback even as I write. As always, he’ll construct a gorgeous book. Once he’s got the trade paperback done, he’ll convert the file into an eBook. Will we put it in KU? Of course!

With Escape finished, I can work on other projects, including the “International Agatha Christie, She Watched” and (only a working title) “The Wardogs of Barsoom.”

International Agatha is just what it sounds like. The response to “AC,SW” has been so good that we decided to continue with watching all the international films, assuming we can get them with English subtitles. We expect to have finished books in hand for Malice Domestic 36 in April of 2024.

“Wardogs of Barsoom” is Ulla Tisdale DelFino’s story where she learns she has a kidnapped half-brother, comes to terms with her disreputable mother, learns to work with Shondra Chee Sakamoto (they dislike each other), and chooses between two wonderful men. She can’t have both. The title will be changed as I don’t want to tangle with the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate, but I love the sound of it. As you can guess, big dogs with paws the size of salad plates will feature prominently. I am not going to give any kind of date for this as every time I do, I get held up and don’t deliver as promised.

Bill is also working on a project. He’s annotating the classic Dorothy Sayers mystery, “Clouds of Witness.” It will be loaded with footnotes, art, essays, and all the usual gilding of the lily we do at Peschel Press. It will be available sometime in early September? We’ll let you know!

You Are Your Author Photo

I’ve written plenty over the last few years about all the aspects of direct sales, including your appearance. You should never appear in public at an event looking like you’re cleaning out your garage. Devise a uniform that suits your genre and writing style and always wear it.

You also wear it for your author photo. When you sell books online as most of us do, or you’re shelved at the local bookstore or library, your book does the talking. Not you. The only contact the reader has with you is your author photo above your bio and your acknowledgements, buried at the back. Your author photo is another chance to tie everything together.

We’ve accumulated a variety of author photos over the years. Most of the time, it’s us taking an impromptu shot at an event. We’re already wearing the correct clothes and we’ve got a ready-made backdrop of our booth or bookshelves at the library. Sometimes we’re more creative.

I started out using my glamour shot from the mid ‘80’s for Odessa Moon. I look glamorous! I also look 40 years younger, which isn’t necessarily the best choice for an author photo when people finally meet me and see — instantly — that I’m not that young any more. My second Odessa Moon photo is at least current. We took this picture (in Odessa’s uniform) alongside the surprise lilies. It’s a nice picture.

I’ve got pictures of me as Teresa. Bill’s got pictures too. I’ve got an author photo for Fed, Safe, and Sheltered with Muffy, our late dog. In AC,SW we’ve got pictures of our four cats, because they participated in our Instagram photo shoots when we watched a movie.

But it was always ad hoc.

Then, a few weeks ago, we decided to get serious. We set up a screen in our living room, laid out the clothes, did hair and makeup, and had dear daughter take a whole series of photos, using a camera on a tripod. I dressed as myself and as Odessa. Bill wore various on-shirts, including the dark blue he wears when he does a podcast. We took pictures of us as individuals and together as a team. We took pictures of us holding our books. We did our best with the lighting.

The results weren’t stellar but they were adequate. They were certainly better than what we had before. Bill should have posted the best ones on our website as part of our media kit, but we’re sadly out of date at updating that portion of our website. He sent one of those pictures to the Main Line Writers’ Group for their advertisement for our 1AUG23 speaking engagement.

Then this morning, we had some more pictures taken by Megan Stillinger at Cupboard Maker Books for their adverts for my upcoming appearance at Bookstore Romance Day. They wanted a better picture than what we’d been able to take ourselves. Megan graciously offered to let us have copies for our own use and you can bet we said yes. She took better pictures than we are capable of.

This leads to “Should you get professional headshots?” The answer is that old standby: It depends. How much money do you have to spend? Do you have a variety of author avatars, each with their own uniform? Have you established your author uniform? Do you know anyone who’s good at taking pictures? Do you understand how a picture should be lit so the finished product doesn’t look like your police mugshot after a momentous Saturday night?

Your author photograph is important! It attracts attention, positive or negative. You’ll use it as part of your media kit on your website for news organizations to download and use, as your author photo in your books and social media, and as your author photo at Amazon, IngramSpark, and Bookshop.org.

The better your picture, the better the image you present. This is very important if you’re writing in an unexpected genre.

It’s easiest to illustrate this point with a story. Some time back, Bill mentioned a 20Booksto50K author having trouble with his marketing. If I recall correctly, this middle-aged, male author wrote young adult time travel romance. Dear daughter saw his author photo and, not knowing anything else about him, screamed “Sunoco Parking Lot Stalker!” If you are writing teenage time travel romance, you do not want this reaction from your potential reader. Not in public at an event and not online at Amazon.

Get the best photos you can take. Manipulate them to adjust light and color and warmth so you don’t look like you’re three days dead. Match your outfit to your genre. Visit a stylist to improve your look and make sure they understand what image you need to project. And if, despite your best efforts, you look wrong, wrong, wrong for your genre, use another image like a bouquet of flowers or your initials.

Your author photo represents you and your books so don’t ignore it. And don’t forget to update your media kit when you get new pictures. You never know who’ll see them or need them.

So thanks again for joining us at the Peschel Press Newsletter for July 2023. Writers need readers and we need you. Come and see us at one of our events!