The Buzz You Have to Do Yourself

PJ Nunn

Guest Blog for Hey, There’s A Dead Guy in the Living Room

The Buzz You Have to Do Yourself

Elizabeth Zelvin

 

I recently participated in a panel about building buzz—something I know a good deal about. It was essential to me in the six years between completing my debut mystery, Death Will Get You Sober, and its publication by Minotaur. And I needed to keep buzzing in the 18 months between my debut and the launch of the next book in my series, Death Will Help You Leave Him. But sharing the panel with a professional publicist illuminated for me the fact that buzz means two different things.

 

First, there’s the stuff a professional publicist can do that the author can’t and the stuff the publicist can do much better than the author. This includes getting author and book into the print and broadcast media, getting the book to reviewers if your own publisher doesn’t do it, maybe sending press releases, and arranging signings and events. On my last book tour, PJ Nunn and I split the task of booking my gigs. She got me some terrific chain store meet & greets, because she knows which of the CRMs are receptive to mystery and debut authors. And I discovered that the stock signings she arranged went smoothly, while where I’d called myself to say I’d come by on a certain date, I often found that nobody knew a thing about me or my book.

 

The mystery and indie booksellers are another story. One of the chief goals of the book tour was to establish good relationships with this wonderful group of people who know their stock and take delight in hand selling the right book to the right reader. In most cases, the relationship started when I first contacted them about visiting their store. A few times, PJ made the first approach. But I took over as soon as I could. Leaving the whole relationship to the publicist would be like marriage by proxy. It may have worked for sixteenth-century royalty, but it’s not for me.

 

At the heart of the kind of buzz that’s about visibility lies the ability to schmooze and make friends—in other words, networking. This does not mean giving everyone you meet (or see on a line for the movies or in the restaurant where you’re having dinner) your card or bookmark. It does mean taking every possible opportunity to connect with people, especially mystery lovers, when you get the chance. I talk about books and the dozens of oddball topics that come up online at DorothyL. I go to conferences like Malice Domestic and Bouchercon anticipating a lovefest and usually find it. Sure I give out bookmarks and chapbooks of Death Will Help You Leave Him, but I also hug a lot of people—and not one of them is a frog.

 

I admit that living in New York gives me an edge. The MWA and Sisters in Crime chapters here are terrific opportunities to rub shoulders with writers from the not yet published to the famous and hang out with agents, editors, and booksellers. I attend a lot of launches at the mystery bookstores, “paying it forward” by buying the author’s book. And I get to go to all the parties. I’m not always pitching to an agent or editor or asking for a blurb. But when I do need to make a formal connection as an author, I’m usually approaching someone I already know, and that’s a big advantage.

One thing leads to another. And not everything has to be directly tied to the books. At the award dinner at Killer Nashville this year, where I knew fewer people than usual because so many attendees were local, 900 miles from New York City, I seized a golden opportunity to play the guitar (a gorgeous one that had just been presented to J.A. Jance, the guest of honor) and sang the great paranormal murder ballad “Long Black Veil.” The mystery folks, even those who knew me, were surprised to find I sing. I had the thrill of “playing Nashville.” And you know what? The next morning, a few more books were gone from the dealer’s pile.

Elizabeth Zelvin is a New York City psychotherapist whose second mystery, Death Will Help You Leave Him, is just out from Minotaur. The series, which started with Death Will Get You Sober, features recovering alcoholic Bruce Kohler and his two friends, a computer genius and a world-class codependent. A related short story was nominated for an Agatha award; another appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine; a third appears in The Gift of Murder, a holiday anthology to benefit Toys for Tots. Liz’s author website is www.elizabethzelvin.com . She blogs on Poe’s Deadly Daughters.