Friday, March 29, 2013

A BITCH CALLED HOPE No. 17 On B&N's Top 100 Nook Books

























I'm very excited and feel like unicorns inside!  My client Lily's mystery/suspense novel, A Bitch Called Hope, released through Diversion Books in February, is No. 17 on B&N's Top 100 Nook Books.

Visit Lily's website to buy her book by clicking here.  If you buy and read Lily's book, please also review it on B&N, Amazon, Goodreads...if you can find a moment.

See what others are saying about "The Bitch" on Goodreads.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

PW Review of Coyle's YESTERDAY'S ECHO

























We are excited to announce that Matt Coyle received a review in Publishers Weekly for his novel YESTERDAY'S ECHO (Oceanview).

To read the PW review, click here.

Congrats, Matt!


New Covers

 






New covers in for two of Kimberley's books.  Very nice!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

DATE ME, DATE MY DOG Published!


























I'm very excited to announce that Kimberley Cameron & Associates launched a new ebook under the KC&A banner on Amazon.com yesterday.

DATE ME, DATE MY DOG: FINDING MR. RIGHT FOR YOU AND YOUR PACK by Leigh Anne Jasheway has been a labor of love of mine since I joined Kimberley Cameron & Associates.  I met Leigh Anne through my previous work with Hunter House Publishers in Alameda, CA.  When I left Hunter House to work with Kimberley, Leigh Anne contacted me not long after and we decided to work together. Our first project was to develop and sell DATE ME, DATE MY DOG (DMDMD).

After developing DMDMD, we shopped it with traditional publishers but had no luck.  They said it didn't quite fit on the humor shelf and wasn't self-help enough for the self-help shelf.  In short, it wasn't focused enough to be one or the other, which made it a tough sell. But I really believe in this book and think there is a market for it (and I certainly have a lot of contacts from my dog-rescuing days in Puerto Rico). I'm sure single, dog-loving women who have a good sense of humor will get a kick out of it.

With the current publishing climate as it is, we've been putting a lot more time and thought into digital publishing.  We've been making deals with digital publishers such as Diversion Books.  And we've been working on a plan for publishing those books of our clients' whose rights have been reverted or we're having a hard time placing. So, it's a real time of growth for us. And we are lucky to have some really talented people involved, helping to make this growth possible.

Please take a look at my client Leigh Anne's website here.  And by all means, feel free to purchase DMDMD on Amazon (it will be available through most other retailers shortly).

A big thank you to Preston Hatfield, Mallory Bass, Brooke Ferguson, and Mary Moore for their help with DMDMD as well as cover designer Kevin Hedenstad, who I think did a great job on the cover (if you need a cover design, email Kevin at hedline24@gmail.com).





Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Grandpa Has A Tumor--Let's Go Fishing! Guest Blog By Joe Clifford

















My client Joe Clifford agreed to write a guest blog for us on his experience at AWP this year.  I'm currently shopping Joe's mystery/suspense novel LAMENTATION.  To see more from Joe, click here to visit his website.


Grandpa Has a Tumor—Let’s Go Fishing!
By Joe Clifford

If social media is to be believed, most people who attend the AWP Conference walk away pissed. At least my friends and the kinds of writers I read. There was this gem by Steve Almond a few years back, which chronicled the nightmare in Denver and produced my all-time favorite line about AWP (“[It’s] this sad, lovely space where Mid-List Authors Come to Feel Like Rock Stars”). The Boston version ended a couple days ago and already we have this graphic headline from the field. Publishing Perspectives: “AWP 2013, Day 1: Like a Giant Toilet Bowl Filled with 11,000 Writers.” I’ve written my own series of essays on my less-than-satisfying experiences with AWP, the best probably being this one.

If you read any of these, and certainly if you read mine, your next logical question has to be, “Why would anyone go to this?” Or more to the point, “Who in their right mind would go back?” That’s like the guy who’s had two disastrous marriages and gets hitched a third. (But in my defense, my lovely wife, Justine, is proving to buck the trend; the 3rd time really is the charm. And what can I say? Like all cynics, I’m a wounded romantic.)

Being a writer today, probably more than ever, means building a platform. If you’ve ever tried to land an agent, you’ve heard about this platform. Publishers. Editors. Publicists. Everyone talks about the need to have one. And while the introverted writer’s best friend may be social media, every once in a while you need to kick it old school and actually, y’know, put on pants and leave the house. At least I convinced myself I did.

It had been a few years since the disaster that was Denver. I won’t recap that miserable experience in its entirety. If you care to know just how awful it was, I’ve linked the story above. I was certainly part of the problem. Fresh out of grad school, novel(s) in hand, desperate to be noticed and validated, I, like the rest of the furry rodents scurrying the wheel, was singularly focused, stopping at nothing to let the writing world know I’d arrived. I gathered around the tables as the “mid-level” held court. I laughed at jokes that weren’t funny and praised work I either A.) hadn’t read or B.) had read and found underwhelming. I hated myself while I was doing it. And I hated myself when it was over. Like a fat kid horking back pie through the tears but unable to stop. Heavy on carbs, light on sustenance.

I am not comfortable in social situations, and in Denver I approximated what I thought a “normal” person is supposed to act like. Which is bad enough at dinner parties. Never mind holding a flimsy MFA degree, surrounded by ten thousand needy strangers and strapped with 70K in student loan debt, feeling like you needed a book published yesterday. Having spent most of my adult life on the fringes, refusing to sell out, I wanted badly to buy in. I was shucking and jiving with the rest of them.

There’s nothing wrong with the construction. AWP is like any other insurance salesman convention. You glad hand, you meet for drinks at the bar at the end of the day. Mostly you band together with the other “too cool for school” kids and mock others. Starts in grad school, ends at the grave. Certainly nothing to get worked up about. No, the part that really gets to you (if you are a writer, and if you weren’t a writer, why the fuck would you be at AWP?) is the phoniness.

Writing—good writing—is about cutting through the bullshit, telling hard truths, however ugly. It’s integral to one’s character. “Building a platform,” while entirely necessary, stands in stark contrast to that ethos; it just feels wrong (“Remember, you’re not selling a book—you’re selling you!”). Add to that, shelling out several hundred bucks to spend three days walking around a book fair (and that is what AWP basically is, a big book fair), with chirpy people and woeful college writing—mix in some self-loathing and regret, which results in needless introspection, and way, way too much shitty coffee—and you can see why no one seems to walk away feeling good about themselves.

Well, almost no one.

There does seem to be a small contingency that genuinely enjoys the event, and this isn’t to besmirch them. The older I get, the less besmirching I do (smirching is a messy business). My guess is that those having a good time at AWP are simply more social. And have books out. I have books out. But—and it’s a big one (which of course we know do not lie. Sorry)—I don’t write…literary fiction.

There’s the rub. AWP is a literary fiction event. No way around it. While I may be able to chalk up part of my miserable time at the conference to my less-than-cheerful disposition (I could be depressed rolling in a pit of kittens), it is undeniable that this thing just ain’t meant for me. Like Chris Rock says of rap and white people. AWP is a topsy-turvy world, a place where poetry sits atop the literary food chain, and genre is the slugshit you scrape off the bottom of Birkenstocks. Walk out on the street and say you write poetry, and who gives a fuck? Say you write poetry at AWP, and you probably have the chapbook to prove it. Short story collections. Obtuse, indie novels. University presses. These things matter at AWP, and if you are one of the current literary darlings, I imagine it might be fun to be relevant for a bit. Like going to your 20th high school reunion and still having hair (and being the best looking guy there—suck it, Tad Brenner!).

But while I weathered heroin addiction, kept my hair, and shone at my 20th, I write noir and hardboiled these days. And AWP is no place for criminally minded.

While bitching at the Office (Facebook) upon my return to the Bay Area, commiserating with other, equally dissatisfied pulp fiction writer friends I’ve never actually met face to face, Alex Cizak, editor of the print journal Pulp Modern, wrote, “Maybe it’s time to start a conference for Writers Who Write about Things Other Than Fishing with Cancerous Grandpa...” Fishing with grandpa and his tumor. Yup. That’s literary fiction and AWP.

Fortunately, I think they already have a conference for the other guys. It’s called Bouchercon. I’ve never been but I’m going this fall. I’ve heard good things. I hope to see Alec and some of my other figurative hardboiled buddies in Albany come September. It might turn out to suck, but at least I’ll be surrounded by my own kind and maybe this time I won’t feel like such a fraud.



Wednesday, March 6, 2013

New Submission Guidelines: Watch Before Submitting



We hope you'll appreciate the humor of this as much as we did.  This is a "must see" for any writers/authors with a healthy sense of humor.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

RUN TO GROUND Reviewed in Suspense Magazine







D.P. Lyle's book RUN TO GROUND was reviewed by Kathleen Heady for Suspense Magazine.

Heady says she was "hooked on the book from the first page. Run To Ground is a tightly written mystery with characters that complement each other. The banter among Walker, Tortelli, and McBride brightens the dialog and adds an entertaining element to a serious story. This may be one to keep you up in the wee hours."

To read the full review, visit Suspense Magazine.

Another Sale to Diversion Books!

Kimberley just keeps the book deals coming.  She recently announced the sale of Jane Shoup's UNTAMED, the re-imagining of the legend of Tarzan and the woman who changed his world, in Publishers Marketplace. Kimberley sold Jane Shoup's book to Mary Cummings at Diversion Books.

We are excited about our partnership with Diversion Books. It's amazing to sell a book and have it release in almost a month's time. Diversion has a quality cover designer and great editorial and publicity and marketing teams.

DREAMWIELDER On Sale Now!

























Garrett Calcaterra's epic fantasy DREAMWIELDER is on sale now across all digital retailers.  Click here for a link to your favorite e-retailer.

DREAMWIELDER follows Makarria, a young girl with supernatural abilities and of royal blood, who embarks on an epic journey to harness her power and free an empire from tyranny and the war against magic.

To read more about Garrett Calcaterra, please visit his website: http://www.garrettcalcaterra.com

THE RIVIERA CONTRACT On Sale Now!

























I'm excited to announce that my client Arthur Kerns' thriller THE RIVIERA CONTRACT released today though Diversion Books. His book is available across all digital retailers.  Click here to access links to your favorite retailer.

THE RIVIERA CONTRACT follows a retired FBI agent/CIA contractor who accepts a "low risk" assignment in the Cote d'Azur and finds himself in a tangle with U.S. and French Intelligence and the target of a terrorist trifecta, each with its own agenda.

To read more about Arthur Kerns, visit his website here: http://www.arthurkerns.com