2009 November | Mystery Writers of America

Bouchercon 2009 report

November 9th, 2009

Bouchercon 2009, Elementary, My Dear Indy, has now come and gone, and the Midwest Chapter has much to be proud of.

Awards

First, we were well represented in both Barry and Anthony Award nominations. For the Barry, we had

•    Sean Chercover, William Kent Krueger, and Michael Koryta; Best Novel
•    Michael Stanley (half of which is our own Stanley Trollip) and Julie Kramer; Best First Novel
•    Julie Hyzy and Max Allen Collins: Best Paperback Original.

For the Anthony, we had

•    Sean Chercover and William Kent Kruger; Best Novel
•    Julie Kramer; Best First Novel
•    Julie Hyzy and Max Allen Collins; Best Paperback Original
•    Jeffrey Marks; Best Critical Non-fiction
•    Sean Chercover; Best Short Story
•    Jon & Ruth Jordan and Gary Warren Niebuhr; Special Service Awards.

Those nominations make a great statement about the talent in this chapter.

And the winners were:

•    Julie Hyzy, our MWMWA President, took home both the Barry and the Anthony for State of the Onion.
•    Sean Chercover took home the Anthony for “A Sleep Not Unlike Death” from Hardcore Hardboiled.
•    Jeffrey Marks the Anthony for Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography,
•    Jon & Ruth Jordan won the Anthony’s Special Service category.

Congratulations to all the nominees and the winners!

Participation and MWA HOT TICKET

Because Indianapolis is in our chapter, we had many, many members there. I think I counted nearly 50 active and affiliate members, and we were represented on at least 28 panels.

Plus, our chapter ran the MWA HOT TICKET program, which enabled ten lucky fans to get an hour with one of eleven bestselling MWA authors. Among the authors participating was one of our own big names, Sara Paretsky. The program was a major success with both the authors and the fans. We received written thank you notes from Carolyn Hart and Sue Grafton, and all of the other authors expressed verbal thanks and said what a wonderful time they’d had. Many of those fans who won tickets said it was the highlight of their Bouchercon experience. Special thanks to our hosting authors who helped things move smoothly. They included Michael Black, Larry Sweazy, Libby Hellman, Jess Lourey, Julie Hyzy, Kit Ehrman, Luisa Buehler, Tony Perona, Raymond Benson, Jim Doherty, Ted Hertel, Deb Baker, Marlis Day, Albert Bell, Carl Brookins, Michael Dymmoch, Beverle Graves Myers, Joanna Slan, Jeanne Dams, Julie Kramer, Jack Fredrickson, Jamie Freveletti, and Sam Reaves. All of these authors had the chance to display their books and do some soft-selling to fans, hopefully gaining them some name recognition and sales. That was all part of MWMWA’s goal, not only to promote the chapter but also some of our authors as well.

In summary, Bouchercon was a huge success!

Tony Perona, Vice President

Categories: Hot Ticket, Meetings, Uncategorized | Tags: Bouchercon, Hot Ticket | Comments Off

September meeting report

November 2nd, 2009

By Michael Dymmoch
The September meeting of MWA/Midwest was held at Centuries and Sleuths, Forest Park, Illinois, on September 23.
It began with announcements: Jim Doherty has a new short story out, a pastiche on Dick Tracy. Steve Phelan has a new book out. Luisa Buehler’s next series book will be out in January of 2011. Naomi Smith’s publisher has picked up the third book in her series. Diane Piron-Gelman’s first novel, No Less Than Blood, will be published in 2011 by Five Star. President Julie Hyzy asked for volunteers to man (or woman) the MWA table at Bouchercon.
Wednesday’s speakers were Danielle Egan-Miller, President, and Lauren Olson, of Browne & Miller Literary Associates (formerly Multimedia Product Development, Inc.), founded by Jane Jordan Browne in 1971. Ms. Egan-Miller worked for the agency early in her career, returning as a partner in 2002. When Ms. Browne died in 2003, Ms. Egan-Miller became the agency president. Lauren Olson joined Browne & Miller in 2007 as an intern, and achieved her present position, Assistant to the Agents, in 2008. Browne & Miller is a full-service literary agency currently representing 200 writers, 75 of whom are actively writing. Most of these are mid-career authors, on their fifteenth book rather than their first. The agency handles print, audio, film/TV, and foreign rights, and sells 25-35 books annually; 85% of sales are fiction. Browne & Miller looks for: well written fiction, particularly substantive women’s fiction, historical fiction with strong romantic elements, narrative non-fiction, classy true crime (like Devil in the White City, but not Chicago Mob books), and young adult fiction. The agency does not deal with large print rights, poetry, screenplays, short stories, children’s illustrated books, Christian living (although Christian-themed novels are OK), Sci-Fi, horror, or works that cannot be classified at all within a genre. They say “Westerns are a hard sell.” Browne & Miller’s current wish list is posted on the Publisher’s Marketplace website (http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/mpdinc/).
The last four years have been very challenging. Contracts frequently come with no check; the check may come thirty days later. Some publishers divide the advance into quarters and pay on signing, on acceptance, on publication, and six months after publication (which used to be called the first royalty check). The agency doesn’t get paid until the author is paid.
Finding the right agent to represent your work is crucial. Established authors are often looking for something different from what debut authors need. “Some people think they need a New York agent. I respect that,” Ms. Egan-Miller said. “But I’m never going to be a New York agent. It has to be a match. We like to work with authors we like. I’ve had my share of authors who are difficult, but how much of me can I devote to handholding or talking people off the ledge?” Browne & Miller has taken on only four debut novels in the last three years. “The problem with debut novels is that they have no traction. We can’t make a living selling only debut fiction, so we’re very careful these days. Clever ideas and fun titles are okay, but most important is the quality of writing and storytelling. It has to be something we really believe in for us to commit to sticking with it.”
Querying is the primary way for an author to introduce his work to an agent; having an agent is still the best way to get a mainstream publisher. Some agents receive 600 book queries per week—30,000 per year! Brown & Miller gets approximately 200 queries per week, twice as many as last year. With a staff of only four, the agency cannot have much sympathy for poorly written queries, or for writers who have not learned their craft or done some basic research.
“We’re not that mean, but if you spell my name wrong….” Queries are read by three staff members before they arrive on Ms. Egan-Miller’s desk. Only five or ten make it through the screening process.
Ms. Egan-Miller distributed and discussed Browne & Miller’s “10 Tips on Query Letters” (which can be found at http://www.browneandmiller.com/Query.html). In querying, it’s most important to follow the guidelines. Query by letter or in the body of an email, whichever medium is the most comfortable. When querying by email, write your letter as a word document, spell check and proof it, then cut and paste it into the body of your email. Ms. Egan- Miller’s advice: “Email gives some people license to be casual or even rude. Err on the side of being conservative and professional.” For security reasons, email attachments will not be opened. Unsolicited material will not be read.

Categories: CLUES, Meeting report, Meetings | Tags: Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, Mystery Writers of America | Comments Off