MJ Rose: internationally best-selling author of nine novels, most recently, The Reincarnationist.

Founding member and board member of ITW.

Founder of the world's first marketing company for authors, AuthorBuzz.com.

Co-Author with Doug Clegg of Buzz Your Book, the writer's marketing bible.

Teacher of the famed Buzz Your Book class...

The list goes on.  MJ's resume is as amazing as she is, and the ITW Debut Writers were thrilled beyond measure when MJ agreed to field our marketing questions recently. (Hint: if you qualify and haven't joined the Debut Author group, this is what you're missing!)

by Sibylle Barrasso

Hank Phillippi Ryan has wired herself with hidden cameras, chased down criminals, and confronted corrupt politicians. She's won 24 Emmys for investigative reporting. "But," she says, "I've never faced a challenge like getting my first novel published."
 
She writes the Charlotte McNally Mysteries, about a 46-year-old investigative TV reporter in Boston. She insists it's not about herself, "I'm older than that." Charlie McNally is married to her job and wonders what will happen when the camera doesn't love her anymore. The premise for her debut novel PRIME TIME: Charlie finds secret messages in computer spam.
 
For months and months, Hank thought she and her husband would be the only ones ever to read PRIME TIME. "I would crane my neck to see the mailbox as we would head up the driveway, home from work," she says. "And every day, every day, there would be that self-addressed brown envelope announcing that yet another agent had said no. Finally, I thought it was just not going to happen. One day, in tears, I said to my husband, 'Is Charlie McNally going to die? Is no one ever going to meet her?"
 

As my debut novel prepares to launch with a bang on Nov. 3, 2008, I thought I would look back to where this overnight success began.

I wrote my first novel at 14 when a junior high classmate ran away from home. After school, my best friend and I hopped on our bikes and scoured the suburban neighborhood, calling the girl's name and looking in her usual haunts.  Although we came up empty in our search, the girl eventually showed up safe and sound. But it was that event that ignited in me an idea for a "What if?" story that eventually grew to be my first novel-length work.

I wrote that first draft in longhand -- despite having some of the worst handwriting to ever spring from the Scottish education system -- and became so enamored of the possibilities that I begged my parents for a portable manual typewriter for Christmas. With the typewriter in my eager little hands, I began the second draft of the novel that I titled, He Climbed A Crooked Ladder. The story was set in Baltimore-- a city I had never been to, so all the descriptions were of my local non-Baltimore neighborhood; the protagonist drove a car, even though I didn't have a driver's license; and it featured a rather interesting sex scene even though I was a virgin.

I finished the novel to my satisfaction sometime in high school (a third draft was written on a fancy new electric typewriter) and it has rested in a dusty box ever since. No one has ever read the finished script, but it taught me one of the most important lessons of bring a writer: I could turn an idea into a whole, novel-length story. Sure, the writing may not have been any good and the plot was probably a meandering mess, but I proved to myself that I could stick at a story and work through it until it was complete.

After that, I turned my attention to poetry (as being around pretty girls at school all day has a tendency to do) and published dozens of horrible ones in the school newspaper. This was also a very valuable lesson. Being published, even in such a small arena, meant people could read my work and offer their opinion. As you can imagine, some people (the closeted poets and lovers of secret diaries) thought I was incredibly brave, while others mocked and laughed at me to no end. Being able to accept this criticism for what it was is something every writer needs. It builds our armor for the future and strengthens our resolve to succeed.

Resolve, determination and pure pigheaded stubbornness was something I would soon discover I needed by the semitruckful.

-- Grant McKenzie
http://grantmckenzie.net
SWITCH
How far would you go to save the ones you love?
Bantam Transworld UK
Coming: November 3, 2008

By Julie Kramer

Any author would love to debut like David Hewson. His first novel, SEMANA SANTA, set in Holy Week Spain, received acclaim, awards, even a movie deal. But the path to publication was a long haul for the former London Times reporter and his is the kind of story that inspires writers at various stages of their careers.

Hewson was turned down by every literary agent in the United Kingdom -- without even reading his manuscript.

He eventually got his agent through a referral even though her agency had already rejected his query. When she called him to discuss his novel, "I neglected to mention this."

Hewson was on assignment in California when The Call came that he'd sold his first book. "To be honest, life was very hectic back then and it took a while to sink in. I'd kind of given up on the book in some ways."

Lee Child, best-selling author of the widely acclaimed Jack Reacher series, agreed to be the debut authors’ guest mentor to address the critical issue of character development.

He remembers his own debut with humor, and his normal low-key style.  “I was in a pub.  The barman took a call behind the bar.  It was my agent.  He had tracked me down via my daughter at home.  He told me I had been offered a two-book deal, for excellent money.  I told him to bite their hands off at the elbow.  Then I actually paid for a round of drinks.  What I didn’t know was that my agent went back to the publisher and rejected the offer and had 50% more money on the table by the next day.  Which is exactly why we need agents.”

Not much surprises Lee, but what about his readers?  “The obvious thing, i.e., I’m British, writing what are seen as very American books.”

The funniest thing that he can remember about his own debut is a conversation he had with his dad.  “I’m not sure whether it qualifies as funny, but I remember that when I told my dad I had lost my job and was going to be a novelist, he said, ‘I’ll lay ten thousand to one against it working.’  He was a CPA, and now I often tell him it’s a good thing he was a bookkeeper, not a bookmaker.  But in principle, he was right.  It’s always a long shot.”
What would he do differently now that he looks back on his debut?   “I would pay more attention to it.  It only happens once.”

It’s obvious that Lee believes an author’s debut is important.  He has spent the past two years as the ITW Board Member Sponsor for the debut authors, giving unselfishly of his own time to help new authors make the jump to publication.

Thanks, Lee.

 

By Julie Kramer

If Allison Brennan liked to brag, she'd have plenty to brag about.

The NYT bestselling author writes three books a year while raising five kids.  Her secret for balancing life and work amid the chaos?

"You have to prioritize your life," the author said.  "What is the number one most important thing? For me, it's my kids. Number two is the writing. Everything else has to wait when I'm on deadline, except my kids." 

So what if you’re not a scientist? you may be thinking. Hundreds of thousands of people could make the same claim: lawyers, social workers, pastry chefs; stockbrokers, carpenters, newspaper reporters; race car drivers, kindergarten teachers, and on and on.

But I write science thrillers. My debut novel FREEZING POINT, which Berkley Books will be publishing in October ‘08, is about a solar energy company that uses microwaves from orbiting satellites to melt Antarctic icebergs into drinking water while environmental extremists plot to stop them, neither realizing the iceberg water is contaminated with an unknown, deadly disease.My day job is working alongside my husband in our family’s upholstery shop. And aside from the semester I attended the University of Michigan, I never went to college.

So what’s someone without a scientific background doing writing science thrillers?  Simple: I write what I love. If I’d stayed in school, there’s no doubt I would have pursued a biology degree.

Dateline: www.jordandane.com ...

In the dead of winter, Jordan served as a checkpoint volunteer on the Iditaski Race in Alaska. JD got flown to a remote no-frills lodge via small floatplane that departed from a frozen lake and landed on the iced-over Yentna River. (Part of this endurance cross-country ski and snowshoe competition follows sections of the Iditarod Trail.) JD checked for mandatory gear, watched for signs of hypothermia, and helped feed the international mix of race participants.

• Jordan once sewed a 6-foot banana—complete with zippered yellow peel and bruises—and camped outside the house of a relative of Mike Nesmith, the wool hatted Monkey. (Mike and Davy Jones were visiting San Antonio at the time.) Wisely, neither Monkey came out of the house that weekend.

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• Jordan created a promotional button that was named Best Slogan of the Year in a national energy magazine. The button was featured on the front cover. The slogan? “Ask me if I have gas” The next year, JD followed that success with another button – “May all your gas be natural”.

• As an architect working on the development of downtown San Antonio, JD’s father named the San Antonio River - the Paseo Del Rio.

For more information on the adventures of Jordan Dane, author of No One Heard Her Scream, please visit her website at www.jordandane.com.

By JT Ellison

May 9th, 2006.

It was a lovely spring afternoon, and my parents were visiting as they drove across country on their bi-annual trip between houses. We were watching A History of Violence, and I remember squirming with the slightest bit of embarrassment because we were at the cheerleader scene. Definitely the movie to watch with your parents, I’m telling you. So when the phone rang, I was relieved, it meant we could hit pause. I looked at the television screen right before the caller ID, Viggo’s head had juuuuuuust disappeared, and I was mentally cursing my ability to hit the pause button at precisely the worst moment when I glanced at the caller ID screen and saw the 212 area code.
atpg_cover_lg.jpg

Cue heart pounding.

Cue exceptionally bad word, starting with F and ending in me.  “F*&# me, it’s Scott,” I said, with the utmost delicacy. Hey, I am a crime fiction writer, after all.

By Kasey Michaels

I had my 'debut' a long time ago -- a long, long time ago. 1982, to be exact. But that was my "small Regency novel ala Georgette Heyer debut." A few years later I made my "category contemporary romance novel debut." A decade later I made my "single title historical novel debut," followed the very next year by my "single title contemporary novel debut." Six years ago I made my "mystery series debut."

By Julie Kramer

My point is, fiction is harder than it looks. For those of us geared in reality, making stuff up can feel like cheating. Once I worked through that issue, I found my news skills to be an excellent foundation for fiction.

First, deadlines didn't scare me.  

Second, interviewing hundreds of people, often on the best or worst days of their lives, helped me develop an ear for dialogue.

Third, research was second nature.

Fourth, I learned to type fast.

Fifth, news encourages tight, focused writing.

Sixth, I'd covered such a variety of events and people, that no plot or character from my imagination seemed over the top.

by CJ Lyons

Twice a Virgin!

Thought that would get everyone's attention!

Ask any published author and they can tell you about their first time…first time getting The Call, that is. 

They will remember exactly where they were, what the weather was like, who was there.  They'll tell you about that giddy feeling when their editor (or agent) said those magic words: we want to buy your book.

My Call came in 2004.  I experienced all the usual spectrum of emotions: elation, terror, skepticism—this must be a joke, right? Or some horrible mistake?  Followed by the glow of accomplishment. 

By Kelli Stanley

I’m a lot of things, but I’ve never considered myself a thriller writer. Oh, I hope I can generate thrills when needed—a description of a damp, dank underground religious temple, especially with a corpse on the altar, can coax a few goose bumps. But here I was, already madly crossing genres with historical mystery-cum-hardboiled noir. I never considered joining ITW.
Until ...

Until I heard about the Debut Author’s program. Until I realized that, like my own writing, ITW crosses genres, crosses labels, and crosses expectations. I soon found that mystery writers, romantic suspense writers, true crime writers—all were comfortably ensconced, all working toward a shared vision of exciting writing, all with a place around the table. ITW was a bubbling, creative melting pot.

Enthused by the potential, energized by the camaraderie, I dashed off an email to David Morrell, who personally echoed the welcome. I was particularly happy to see Eureka, California as a headquarters of sorts—thanks to Vice-President David Dun. Eureka is a largish town and a smallish city, located in way-up-northern California. It also happens to be a place where I travel often—my parents live up that way. And working with David Hewson, our web king, made me feel as warm as a cup of English Breakfast on a cold London morning.

I sacrificed a body part to write my debut novel – No One Heard Her Scream. Now that's commitment. I suspect there are more than a few aspiring authors out there who by now are looking down at their own bodies and wondering what they could do without. Anything for the cause—but let me explain.

While recovering from major surgery, I wrote No One Heard Her Scream in six weeks during a medical leave from my day job. The best remedy for the body is to fill it with passion and I did that. I kept insane hours and my body pumped full of adrenaline instead of pain meds. I wrote and edited until the day prior to my return to work. Since the start of my journey toward publication in 2003, I had completed my fourth manuscript (my second suspense plot).

January 8, 2007 might not seem like a particularly memorable  date to most people, but it will always be a red-letter day for me. That's the day my thriller about an environmental disaster in Antarctica sold to Berkley. Think Jurassic Park on ice — a solar energy company melting icebergs into drinking water while environmental extremists plot to stop them --- neither realizing that the water is contaminated with an unknown, deadly disease.

 I happened to be in a bookstore when I got the call. My agent asked if I could talk for a few minutes, and then wouldn't tell me what was up until I found a place to sit down. I was mildly annoyed with him, because I couldn't think of a single reason he’d call with needing-to-sit-down news, since it had been some months since the novel went on submission, and I was deeply involved in writing the next. But after he told me we had an offer, and who it was from, my knees actually did get weak, so it was a good thing I was sitting down. After that, I walked around the store grinning like an idiot. Fortunately, my daughter was with me --- otherwise, I would have had to hug a stranger. My girls bought me flowers and fixed a nice celebration dinner, and then we broke open the gift bottle of champagne I'd been saving for this occasion for SEVERAL YEARS.

It's been months since the novel sold, and I'm still over the moon. I hope every author who's working toward publication gets to experience this very soon. The reality is even better than I had imagined. Selling a novel changes you --- it validates all the years of learning the craft; all the querying, all the rejection. Someone believed in my work enough to associate their name with mine and put their own reputation on the line using my words. No matter what happens from here on out, I'll never be an aspiring writer again. I’m going to be published!