Peschel Press Newsletter for November 2022

Hi folks! We’re back again and for a change, we don’t have any upcoming events to advertise.

So instead, I’ll talk about two upcoming books. Yes, we may actually publish two more titles in the spring of 2023.

The first will be Escape to HighTower by me as Odessa Moon. It’s the sequel to The Vanished Pearls of Orlov.

I’m going through Bill’s edits, turning the manuscript into a better, tighter book. We’ll pick up right where we left off, with Lannie and Fen heading up the Pole-To-Pole Road north to, well, somewhere. They have differing ideas. Do they meet people along the way? You bet they do! Is everyone else on Mars searching for Lannie, increasingly desperate to find her? Of course they are!

My goal is having finished books in hand by Valentine’s Day as we’ll be at “Love Is In the Air” at the Ashcombe Farm and Greenhouses in Mechanicsburg. It’ll be a beautiful book and the bookplate will be Fen HighTower’s map of his trip to Barsoom and back.

The second book for spring of 2023 is Agatha Christie, She Watched.

We’ve been working on this title for several years, watching 200-some film adaptations of Agatha’s novels and short stories and the finish line is in sight. It’s evolved as we’ve gone along. We were going to include films directly inspired by Agatha but since we’re nearing the 200 mark, those mysteries will go into the sequel Murder at the Movies.

It shouldn’t take a year between watching the last film (Why Didn’t They Ask Evans 2022) and publication and not just because I’ve been reviewing as we go along. Bill’s been formatting as I write so the pages are ready. We’ll need a last run-through for typos and corrections, plus a table of contents and an index. Then, we press [PUBLISH]. The trade paperback will be large and loaded with art. The eBook won’t have nearly as much art due to file size restrictions.

We’re very proud of Agatha Christie, She Watched. It’s the most complete discussion of TV and cinema adaptations anywhere and I can honestly say I watched all those movies. I’m not cribbing from TV Guide or Variety. I sat through them, on my couch, eating cheese and crackers. Frequently, the films are darned good. Sometimes we endured so you, dear reader, can make a more informed choice. I’ve got ratings for the movie, ratings for fidelity to text, cast lists, mug shots, locations, and the review. Each review takes two pages so here’s a sample:

When we’re ready, we’ll have a book launch at our two favorite local bookstores, Mechanicsburg Mystery Bookshop and Cupboard Maker Books. I’ll announce details in the newsletter, the website, and on Instagram.

You do follow us on Instagram and Facebook, right?

Here’s the links: https://www.instagram.com/peschel_press/

And https://www.facebook.com/PeschelPress/

So that’s what’s coming up.

How to Dress Like a Best-selling Author

We will, naturally, be appropriately dressed for “Love Is In the Air” and for the book launch for Agatha Christie, She Watched.

If you recall, last month I discussed brand colors. This month, we’ll get more specific with your clothes.

I say all the time that you shouldn’t dress like you’re cleaning out your garage. I mean it. The next time you attend an event of any kind — as a customer, to fill some time, or as a vendor — look at how everyone, especially the vendor or headliner is dressed. Do they look special? Like they cared enough to make some effort for you, the audience? Are they memorable in a good way? Can you remember, five seconds later, what they looked like? Are they advertising their product so when they leave the booth, you know who they are? Are they giving you a reason to approach them and chat? Did you know who to give the money to?

If the answer is no to any of this, that person failed.

Our society has decided that everyone can wear their jammies in public because we’re all so special we don’t need to make any effort and since we’re all special, no one’s special. What that means for you is that if you make an effort, you’ll really stand out.

I don’t expect you to wear a suit and tie for appearances, although it worked great for Tom Wolfe. He always looked fabulous in his ice cream suit. You knew who he was. His three-piece white suit, with white tie, shirt, and white bucks or spats became iconic.

But you can wear a clean, unripped pair of pants that fit, a collared shirt in your brand color, clean shoes that aren’t falling apart, and have clean hands. Is this hard? Apparently so, considering the number of people I’ve seen in ancient T-shirts where the design has been washed so many times, it’s illegible, worn with ripped, baggy cargo shirts that flatter no one, and sneakers falling apart from age.

Remember, you’re making an appearance. People do judge books by their covers. You get one chance to make a good first impression so it’s worth the effort.

Once you’ve gotten used to wearing clean clothes in good repair, let’s move up a step and become more memorable. Put together an outfit that you use only for appearances. This will become your uniform. It helps you to remember you’re onstage and it helps book festival goers remember you from year to year. Choose a brighter shirt in your brand color instead of beige.

Like Tom Wolfe, you can get fancier and reflect your personality or your genre.

[TOM WOLFE By MoSchle – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27368688]

Misty Simon (aka Gabby Allan) always wears a dramatic dress over a crinoline. She’s got about a hundred of these dresses, in various colors and themes.

Judi Fennell writes spicy, contemporary romance. She’s got long, blonde hair, bright yellow high-heels, wears bright, fun colors, and her Volkswagen Beetle is bright yellow with eyelashes over the headlights.

I met Shawn McLain, horror writer, at Books, Books, Books. His table looked great but he was dressed to clean out his garage. I suggested he match his appearance to his genre. Lo and behold, a few weeks later at the Chocolate Town Book Festival, he wore black pants, black shirt, and a black vest printed with a life-size skeleton torso, every bone anatomically correct. He looked great, distinctive, and he was genre-appropriate. People will remember him.

I met Andrew Grey via my writer’s group. He writes MM contemporary romance. I sewed him a pair of short-sleeved, button-up shirts with a collar, using fabric I had in the stash. One was printed with half-naked cowboys, the other with half-naked firemen. Andrew loved the shirts. He loved them even more when he began wearing them to events and people came up to him to ask about the shirt. He calls them his magic shirts and now has six or seven different ones, worn exclusively to book signings. His fans remember him and he’s easy to spot in a crowd.

Do you write noir or spy thrillers? Break out the trench coat and fedora.

Do you write westerns? You should have a western shirt with pearl buttons and a hat.

Space opera? I still remember the woman at the York Book Festival with her silvery outfit and electric blue coils of alien hair, woven into her own.

Do you write Victorian murders like Christine Trent? She wears a Victorian gown to her events! She looks great and she gives total strangers a reason to approach her to ask about her clothes.

Are you unsure what to do? Then look around and ask, especially of writers in your genre. If necessary, get a stylist. That could be a hundred bucks well-spent, turning you from a creep into someone approachable. True story! A gentleman on the Facebook group 20Booksto50K asked about his lack of sales. He writes romantic YA fantasy, not a typical genre for a middle-aged man, or at least one that they don’t use their actual picture for their author photo. He thoughtfully included his thumbnail picture. Dear Daughter saw it and screamed, “Sunoco parking lot stalker!”

If you resemble a Sunoco parking lot stalker, you can just about guarantee your audience will avoid your table at the book festival.

What is your goal with your event uniform? To be memorable, to be approachable, and to remind yourself that you are onstage. Like an actor, you’re wearing a costume to help you get into the role. When you only wear the costume for events, you help reinforce what you’re doing to yourself.

This is your job.

You are onstage, interacting with potential fans, as an author.

The other point of a costume or uniform is it helps you — shy retiring flower that you are — become someone else. You become your own author avatar, the person who meets the public, interacts with fans, and sells books.

So dig through your closet and see what will work better. If necessary, spend a little money at the consignment shop. Or spend a little more for a skeleton vest or a Victorian outfit if that’s what your genre calls for.

Your uniform will help you succeed at events.

Thanks again for joining us, folks. Keep an eye on our events calendar so you can see us in person, in uniform. We can’t do it without you.