The book, besides being the cornerstone of Kensington's new imprint, is getting some early buzz, partially due to Hall's involvement with independent literary publicist Kelley & Hall which she runs with her mother and sister. "Right now we're doing the same things for my book that we do for all our clients. 'Sisters' was featured in USA Today as part of a trend piece for books that are taking place in Salem involving witchcraft."

Kelley & Hall was partly created because her sister, Jocelyn Kelley, worked in publishing and would see great books cross her desk, get a lot of buzz within the publishing house, then disappear. "She wondered why all these great books were being overlooked and that's why we started our company."

Hall suggests that creating buzz is about "getting the book into the hands of the right people. There is no magic bullet, no magic potion. It's timing, knowing what editors like and are looking for. In-house publicity is usually a small team of people. They're overworked and they have to promote ten to twenty books a month and they don't have the manpower or resources to give every book the attention it needs."

Still, Hall says, "It requires the right combination of everything. First you have to have a great book. Then you have to make sure people see it. If people don't know about this great book, it'll just come out and fizzle and no one knows about it. Word of mouth can only take you so far."

Hall, who lives north of Boston with her husband and five-year-old daughter, is ramping up promotion for Sisters Of Misery and working on the second book in the contract, a sequel called The Lost Sister, due out in August 2009. Hall thinks she'll continue to stay in Young Adult and suspense, but might try her hand at a suspense novel for adults. "But right now I really love the genre because of the writers that inspired me in this genre, people like Lois Duncan and RL Stine and other YA thriller writers who have paved the way. It's such an interesting group to write for because teen readers are so passionate and become so devoted to authors. It will be great to develop a fan base within that group because I know how much I was affected by what I read growing up."

Sisters Of Misery is due out from Kensington in trade paperback on July 29.

Contributing editor Mark Terry is the author of the Derek Stillwater thriller series. His newest thriller, THE SERPENT'S KISS, is available in stores and online.