Hallie's writing workshops

HALLIE EPHRON: It’s WHAT WE’RE WRITING week and, as usual, I get to lead off. For the last month I’ve been writing short pieces like a “Behind the Book” essay for the paperback edition of CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR which comes out in August 2020. The darned thing took WEEKS. If I took that long to write a novel, I'd be on the four-year instead of the two-year plan.

I've also been updating material for writing workshops I’m slated to teach over the next few months.

I was a teacher (see below, me and my third-graders at PS 189 in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood) long before I was a writer, and you’d think prepping for these workshops would be a piece of cake. After all, I’ve taught most of these topics before. But no, every time out, I create a new slide pack and new handouts. I like to add new insights and exercises, update the examples, and incorporate the controversies and issues in today’s publishing world. And this summer I'm developing 2 brand new workshops.

Here’s what I have on tap to teach this summer, assuming that COVID-19 doesn’t shutter writing workshop world completely.

June 12 – 16 – Yale Summer Writer’s Workshop - a small group, 4-day workshop on writing crime fiction: mystery, thriller, and suspense

If past experience is any guide, the people who sign up for this workshop will be exceptional. Last time out, there were at least five participants who, in my opinion, were within reaching distance of getting an agent and finding a solid publisher. In fact, I just got an email from one of them -- she’s been offered representation by an agent who represents some of the top crime fiction writers out there. I’m so thrilled for her. This was after a serious bump in the road when she signed with an "agent" with a sketchy business model. EVERYONE who gets an offer to publish or represent, due diligence! At a minimum, look them up on SFWA's WRITER BEWARE. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

June 25 – Manhattanville College Summer Writers Week 2020, Purchase NY – 3-hour afternoon class on writing a page turner

This is a crash course will be part of their annual week of writing workshops. I expect the class will have a diverse group of writers, across genres, from beginners to well-on-their-way writers. The workshop I'm giving is packed with tips and tricks for capturing the reader’s attention, hooking the reader with scene structure, building characters that make the reader care, Infusing the story with suspense and action, and building momentum while leaving room to grow. It’ll be a drink from a fire hose. 

July 31-August 2 – Willamette Writers Conference in Portland, OR

The Willamette Writers Conference is one of my all-time favorites. It takes place over 3 days at a Sheraton at the airport, and it’s got an especially strong film track. There’s always a healthy contingent of young, diverse writers and participants. I’ll be teaching a workshop on creating compelling characters and another on writing suspense. And I’ll be going one on one with writers, talking about their works in progress.

August 13-16 – Writers Digest Annual Conference in NYC 

I love this conference, and not just because it’s in the heart of in my all-time favorite city. But the location is one reason why it draws an exceptional group of agents and editors along with so many talented writer/teachers. I’ll be teaching a pair of workshops—both for the first time. One on rooting suspense in domesticity, and a second on the nuts and bolts of giving a book talk. 

I’m especially excited because Jane Friedman (THE HOT SHEET) will be speaking. She is SO SMART, and her take on what’s going on in the publishing world is always bracing and informative. Way back when self-publishing was pretty much limited to vanity publishing, she was one of the first people who had any idea what a sea change was under way. 

Will you be teaching or taking any classes this summer (the good Lord willing and the creek don't rise).

On Book Touring

ROSEMARY: "Nobody goes there anymore...it's too crowded"
If you're a New Yorker you grow up with Yogi Berra-isms. They're delivered in utero like collective memories, and this one's been coming back to me lately as I hear over and over again that authors "aren't touring" because "it never pays for itself" and the publishers are only touring "bestselling authors who don't need it." I say hogwash. People are touring, they're just defining it differently.

It's become fashionable to say that blog tours make so much more sense "and I can do it in my jammies!" You won't hear me say I don't engage in the kind of social media we've been yakking about recently. I've got two pages on facebook, a fan and a personal, and I've recently crossed the Rubicon into Twitterland where I have an embarrassingly low number of followers - please follow me @rosemaryharris1. Still, I guess I'm old-school. I want to meet booksellers, librarians and readers in the flesh, particularly if I've met them already online. Few things match a face-to-face meeting for generating that all-important word-of-mouth.

A recent survey conducted for Sisters in Crime revealed that word-of-mouth and personal recommendations were still the biggest motivations to purchase books and although I can Meet, Friend and Like as many people as I want to online, it's the ones I've met in person who have been the strongest advocates for my work.

And where do I meet most of them? At shows and conferences. If the book tour used to mean the red carpet treatment and jetting from one glamorous destination to another with cases of perfectly chilled Perrier at your disposal, (sadly before my time) for some, it now means Columbus, Ohio for RT Booklovers Convention, New Orleans for American Library Association, Oakmont, Pennsylvania for the Festival of Mystery and other stops which might not have previously been on anyone's whistle-stop campaign but are increasingly important as up-and-coming and midlist authors work to get the word out about their books. If the people don't know you well enough to come out for you then you've got to go where the people are.


In the past three years, I've been to all of these events plus the Connecticut Flower and Garden Show, the Collingswood, Decatur, Empire State and Philadelphia Book Festivals, The Big E (a five state fair in MA.) I've even gone to something called the Submarine Festival in Groton, CT. Okay, that one didn't work - but all the others have, and I've sold more books at these venues than I ever have at a chain store or most indies with the exceptions of Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ, Aunt Agatha's in Ann Arbor, MI and Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, PA, but those retailers are exceptional - and they are few and far between. Which is not to say other retailers aren't good at what they do, they're just not in the business of making me famous. That's my job.

I've also met a number of influential bloggers at these events, Jen Forbus, Molly Weston and Kaye Barley to name a few and while their stock in trade is the internet, meeting and getting to know them in person has been invaluable (as well as oodles of fun!)

The logistics may take some time but I'll also go to virtually any library that invites me. If a librarian is interested enough to ask for me that's the same as having a friend in town who will chat up my book and I will do my best to go and provide an entertaining program - for 3 people or 300. Is it working - ask me in five years.

How do you feel about touring?

HANK: I love it. Something wonderful happens at every stop. It is however, expensive. And time consuming. For the past--five years?--I've essentially used ALL my vacation days from work to do book events. With no regrets! It's a privilege, really.

HALLIE: What's happened for me is that 'touring' is no longer just about a book launch. It's like social media, and can be any time (and sometimes all the time). I so agree with you, Ro, about events. I've just come off doing a string of them, and I'll be at the Willamette Writers conference in Oregon and the Surrey International Writers Conference in Vancouver and and and... I just spoke for the Sturbridge Library and will be in Malden in a few weeks. I guess 'touring' has become part of my writing life -- fortunately like Ro and Hank, for me it's a sheer pleasure and frankly (shhh, don't tell anyone) a nice break from the hard work of writing.

ROBERTA: Touring is exhausting and expensive, but nothing beats meeting readers! And I love doing events with other writers--share the pain and the gain! I've been laying low writing and getting ready to launch the first Key West food critic mystery--I won't do a blog tour this time. I think the repetition wears people out and ends up being a turnoff, don't you think?

DEB: Yes to all of the above! I think we've all agreed that the social networking is pretty much a necessity. But nothing replaces actually getting out and meeting people. Over the years I've been to most of the best independent bookstores in the country, and making those personal connections with booksellers is priceless. The same holds true of meeting bloggers and reviewers and readers in person. No substitute. It does take it's toll, however, both personally and financially. I've been having a quiet, catch-up year so far, but starting with Bouchercon I'll be ramping up for the new book out next February. Interesting--this quiet year has made me realize how much I've missed seeing all my friends in the writing community, because community it is.

JULIA: That's an important point, Deb. One of the things I've come to realize about publishing in general and the mystery community in particular is that it's all about relationships. The relationship between the author and the folks at her publishing house, between the booksellers and their customers, between the readers and the book itself. Book tours, conferences and conventions create and reinforce these relationships. And although you do "meet" many people over the internet, I agree with Ro - there's nothing like talking face-to-face with someone.


As you all know, I'm just coming off of an exhausting month-plus of touring for ONE WAS A SOLDIER. You know the one question I've been asked at virtually every book store and library I've spoken at? "What are you reading now? What are some books you like?" So long as readers rely on other readers recommending their favorite reads, so long as book lovers depend on a bookseller saying, "Try this, you'll love it," there will be book tours. And tired, broke authors who wouldn't have it any other way.