"SAY THE WORD... and you'll be free" now open for business

Well, I went and did it. I started my own personal blog. Still not sure why, except that it was time. I'll be staying at the Outfit as well, but now I'll have a chance to post stuff that is more -- well -- whatever I damn well want.

Yeah, it is freeing.

So... my first post on the new blog is the back story on TOXICITY. I hope you'll check it out and leave a comment. Or not.

See you here and there.

What’s Your Pleasure?

by Marcus Sakey

We’re coming up on three years of running the Outfit, and as you know, adding some excellent new members. I for one am excited to have them come aboard. They're all good folk, and more important here, each will bring something new.

To be honest, when we first started this blog, I thought that after a year or so it would peter out, if for no other reason than sheer redundancy. But while there are certainly topics to which we frequently return—politics, crime, media, writing—I’ve been delighted to see that by and large we haven’t been dishing up leftovers.

Now, my other Outfitters are smarter than me, so I’m not surprised that they’re able to bring the fresh every time. But I’m willing to admit that there are weeks when I feel like I don’t have anything to say.

At that point, what I usually do is write something lightweight. I talk about a book I read and loved, or what I’m listening to, or I rant about something. Doing that has two interesting results. First, by the time I’m done with the piece, I usually find that I did have something to say after all. And second, those posts often generate the most discussion.

Which got me to wondering—as we head into our third year, is there anything you, our readers, would like to see? Anything you wish we talked about less, or anything you wish we’d spend more time on?

Do you want to read more about writing and publishing? More about what moves us? Greater political detail? Excerpts from our work in progress? Backhanded slaps at our half-articulate blog trolls?

Do you want this to be a discussion you take an active part in? Or would you prefer to lurk?

Honestly—what would you like?

Not to talk about marketing, but . . .

by Sean Chercover

Okay, we don't really talk about marketing around here. Just not really our thing, and it's very well-covered by other people like this guy.

But this is really funny (thanks to Guyot for sharing):



Not only is it funny, and perhaps a bit painful, but it also motivated me to search for the author's website. Dennis Cass. Well, his blog. His Blogger blog. He doesn't have a website. Of course.

So he's a smart guy and produced a funny video that will at least attract other writers to his blog, where they will learn about his book. His video probably won't appeal to anyone outside the publishing industry, but a lot of people work in publishing, and they are the kind of people who talk a lot, and spread - for want of a better term - buzz.

I'm think about all this because Trigger City comes out in October and now is the time to start planning the tour and other promotional efforts.

Yes, I have a MySpace. And my first book has its own MySpace. I'm not linking to them here - this is not an attempt to get you to "be my friend." I frankly suspect that MySpace is a waste of time, but I'm there and have many friends. And I'm on facebook. No, I don't want to "forward and see what happens." I know what happens. What happens is, I spam all my "friends" with a picture of a puppy dog and the message "forward and see what happens."

God, is there any more complete waste of time than forwarding pictures of puppy dogs on facebook? Time's running out, folks. You only got another (insert estimate of your remaining days here) days left before you become worm-food. This is your life. And it is not, as they say, a dress rehearsal. Jo-Jo Dancer, your life is calling! Do you really want to spend it FORWARDING PICTURES OF PUPPIES TO YOUR "FRIENDS" ON FACEBOOK!!???

Ahem. Excuse the outburst. But you must know what I mean.

So . . .

. . . anybody care to share? Which marketing efforts (either online or off-) do you swear by? And which do you swear at?

What I Learned from Blogging

by Barbara D'Amato


I’ve learned respect for columnists. Wow! Serious respect for columnists! We have seven bloggers in The Outfit, and there is a new blog every other day, which means each of us is up to bat once every two weeks. I can hardly imagine writing a column once a week, much less having a daily column. I salute all who can do it.

I’ve learned a lot about myself. Being forced to spell out how I feel about a current event or a long-term issue brings me face-to-face with myself.

Quite frequently I blog about issues I am of two minds about—pornography, or the drug laws, for example. Sometimes this helps resolve my thinking. The responses help, too, and they are always interesting. I learn a lot from them.

Before I started blogging–at Libby’s request–I’d heard both positive and negatives takes on it.

“It’ll take time from your writing.” Well, so does dinner.

“There are too many blogs.” Sure. I’ve also heard many times that there are too many books. I was a judge for the Mystery Writers of America 2006 Best Novel Award. We received approximately 550 books. Yup—five hundred and fifty. These are books published for the first time in calendar 2006, in English, not including first novels and paperback originals, which go to different committees. So there are lots of books and lots of blogs in the world. There are several blogs I dip into. To me the many offerings mean lots of richness.

“Blogs don’t sell books.” People say this to writers who participate in blogging, assuming they do it just to sell books. Well, yes, we all hope. And who knows whether blogs help? I don’t know. But I’ve gone farther for less and meanwhile this is fun.

And that’s the bottom line. The fun of it. The best part has been getting to know my blogmates. I had known Sara, Libby, and Michael for years and had read all their books, but this blog business is different. You “meet” a person by reading his or her books, of course, but a book is a specific, constructed, enclosed piece. I’ve been delighted to see their range of ideas and reactions to current events as we’ve blogged along. And Kevin, Sean, and Marcus, whom I did not know before this, have quite truly enriched my life. They are all over the lot, in the best way—always smart, surprising and always expanding my awareness of things.

If I had one piece of advice to give other bloggers, it’s don’t blog alone. This team is great. Blogging alone must be like trying to square-dance by yourself.