Delighted to have another author to highlight today. From J. (formerly of J-TWO-O), longtime Balloon Juice reader and occasional commenter:
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Thank you, TaMara, for allowing me to flog my books on Balloon Juice. ?
When I first started following this blog, back in 2007, I was a technology/business journalist with a blog called J-TWO-O and dreams of writing a bestselling business book or the great American novel. Ten years later, I had accomplished neither, had stopped blogging, and had been (it turned out temporarily) laid off from my contract gig.
I was having dinner with friends on Sanibel Island, Florida, shortly after, wondering what I should do with my life, when my girlfriend’s husband, who had taken early retirement and decided to become a full-time musician, told me that now was the time to pursue my dream. What was it I really wanted to do?
My husband piped up, “Write a book!” And he and my friends then spent the remainder of the evening telling me I should write a book. I told them I had tried writing a book, multiple times, and failed. It was one thing to write a 1500-word article, or even a 3000-word one, quite another to bang out 80,000 words, the typical length of a novel. And I dismissed the idea.
Two weeks later, back in Connecticut, I woke up having dreamed about a woman who moves from New England to Sanibel after losing her job and her husband (to another woman), gets a job working for the local paper, and stumbles upon a dead body while hunting for seashells. I ran to my computer and began typing. Six months later, A Shell of a Problem, the first book in the Sanibel Island Mystery series, was published.
The book did well, especially on Sanibel, so I decided to write another one. That too did well, so I kept on writing. I am now about to publish the seventh book in my cozy mystery series, A Perilous Proposal. And this year I also wrote a stand-alone novel, Tinder Fella, a rom-com that takes place in pre-Covid NYC.
If you like cozy mysteries—were a fan of Murder, She Wrote or read Nancy Drew as a kid (both of which my books have been compared to)—have vacationed on Sanibel, or are looking for something light and fun to read this winter, check out the Sanibel Island Mystery series. The books can be found on Amazon, Bookshop.org, and Barnes & Noble online, as well as in some bookstores, and are available in paperback and for the Kindle. (A Shell of a Problem is also available as an audiobook.)
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TaMara again. Here is Jennifer’s author’s page on Amazon You can find a link to all her books there. She’ll be stopping by so you can ask her questions, etc.
As always, I’m happy to highlight any of your works, just drop me an email…
I am curious – did you find it easy or difficult to write during this crazy time? It’s been hit or miss for me. Lots of ideas to put to paper, but I find my focus is lacking.
(Also, in case you missed it, there’s a general open thread just before this one)
TaMara (HFG)
I have to walk the dogs, I’ll check in when we return.
Major Major Major Major
Congrats on the dream come true!! I’ve never written a mystery, jealous of people whose plotting brain works that way. Any tips?
germy
@Major Major Major Major:
Work from back to front
J.
@Major Major Major Major: Thanks! My biggest tip is to just write. Doesn’t matter what you write, just write a little every day — and don’t go back and edit what you wrote until you are done.
My second tip is to write about something or someone or someplace you feel connected to. That was my big problem with fiction originally: I had good ideas, but they weren’t necessarily good ideas for me.
Good luck!
Emma from FL
Nice! They go on next month’s purchase list. I am always looking for interesting mysteries about Florida. So often it’s either a Travis McGee knockoff or a sassy, brassy retired woman. Now, neither one is necessarily bad, but how often can one read a new variation on the theme?
PaulWartenberg
Good luck, Jennifer!
evap
I love cozy mysteries and the Kindle version of the first one is only three bucks. Done!
Just curious, how much of the $2.99 does the author get?
J.
@germy: That, too. :-) Definitely helps if you know how you want the story to end.
J.
@Emma from FL: Don’t know who Travis McGee is. And my sleuth, Guinivere Jones, is in her early 40s and only slightly brassy. (She’s a redhead — excuse me, strawberry blonde.) If you’re looking for a fun, light(er) mystery with a dash of romance, you’ll enjoy the books. I don’t know of any Florida mysteries like them.
J.
@PaulWartenberg: Thank you!
J.
@evap: Thank you! To answer your question, not much. The first book is priced that way to entice people to take a chance. Hopefully, they enjoy it and buy the next one, and the one after that. :-)
Mary G
I loved J-TWO-0! It survived any number of blog-list purges and I was sad to see it go, so buy J’s books.
Major Major Major Major
@J.: I’ve heard that advice but I can just never come up with anything twisty enough ? thanks!
bemused senior
@J.: You should look for a Travis McGee e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deep_Blue_Good-by. Describes FL of an earlier era. Most of the villains have to do with out of control development.
Elizabelle
I love blogs. Jennifer’s, which I’d entirely missed. 2007-2018; it had a good run. (Thanks, MaryG, for mentioning it again.) Look forward to surfing it.
http://jtwoo.blogspot.com
Jeffery
People have wonder how many divorces or babies would be the result of covid. I wonder how many novel will be the result. Lots of people who wanted to write a book had time to either finish something they had started of finally sat down and got a good start on a novel. We’ll see.
MomSense
Ooh, I’m sending the author page to my sister who just returned from spending several months on Sanibel Island.
Elizabelle
@bemused senior: I would like to read those in sequence. So many present-day mystery/police procedural authors pay homage to John D. MacDonald and Raymond Chandler.
Both of whose novels are geographically centered (Florida/the Caribbean, Los Angeles).
J.
@bemused senior: Thanks!
J.
@Mary G: I’m touched. Thanks for reading J-TWO-O. One day I might revive it. Though do people still read blogs, other than this one?
J.
@Elizabelle: Thanks. :-)
Dorothy A. Winsor
Love a book with a good sense of place!
J.
@Jeffery: I’m in a Facebook book/indie author group, and it seems like everyone wrote a novel during Covid. Will they get published is another matter.
J.
@MomSense: Thank you! If she loves Sanibel, she’ll love the books. (Most of the places mentioned are actual places or were based on real places.)
Groucho48
@J.: The Travis McGee books are worth a read but only if you can accept they are very much a product of the 60’s and McGee does a lot of “wounded bird” type womanizing. His ideal woman is a stewardess or nurse who envisions a future with a husband and a bunch of kids.
Other than that, the books do capture the Florida milieu pretty well, are well written, have interesting characters and move along briskly.
MomSense
@MomSense:
Sent it to my stepmom, too.
MomSense
@Groucho48:
Was he the character who lived on a houseboat? Many years ago I was given a mystery by a fellow backpacker at a hostel. We shared notes about our travel plans and he would leave books at train stations for me to find.
Kristine
I grew up near Sanibel Island, so I should check these out. Cozies are a good fit right now–when I’m working, I can only read what I don’t write myself.
raven
@Jeffery: I want to read yours.
jackmac
I love mysteries and will wander over to Amazon and place an order. I’ve been a journalist much of my adult life and have never had a problem quickly delivering 1,500-word stories on deadline. For a while I was even doing 3,500-word story/sidebar/feature packages on MLB games. It was bang-it-out, shovel it over to the editor and move on to the next thing. That was stressful but in a motivating way (and I’m glad I don’t do it anymore). But putting together an 80,000 word novel? That’s so completely foreign to me and I admire people who have the writing chops, patience and discipline to tackle.
rikyrah
Just bought the first one
I love these posts ?
Kristine
@evap:
Self-pub royalty for books priced $2.99-$9.99 is 70% of sales price.
RSA
Could you say something about the publication process and marketing?
J.
@jackmac: I would love to write about baseball. At least theoretically. (I’m a long-suffering Mets fan.)
J.
@rikyrah: Thank you!
J.
@RSA: I went the self-publishing route, as I didn’t want to take a year to find an agent and then wait another year for the book to be traditionally published. And that’s if I got lucky. I was an editor for many years, so knew what I was doing, sort of. But I still read a lot about self-publishing and talked to indie authors about their experience. Ultimately, I created my own imprint and used KDP and Ingram Spark to distribute my books.
My advice if you are interested in self-publishing is to find a group of people to read your work as you go along, to give you feedback. Then hire a good editor, or at least a good copy editor to make sure you don’t have any typos or errors in your manuscript. Hire a good cover designer. And then use Kindle Direct Publishing and/or Ingram Spark to publish and distribute your work.
As for marketing, I advertise on Facebook and Amazon, send out a newsletter every time a new books comes out or I have big news, and have a Facebook business page where I talk about the books and Sanibel and post lots of pictures. I also do, or did, book signings and book talks and ask people to leave reviews or ratings on Amazon and Goodreads.
Not being traditionally published, it’s harder to get the word out. But you just have to keep plugging away. I ran a boutique marketing communications firm for years and was great at promoting my clients. Myself? Not so much. But I’m trying.
WaterGirl
My sister and BIL go to Sanibel every year in the fall, and I always give one of your Sanibel books to my sister, whose birthday is also in the fall.
I say “always” but we’re only on book #2, but the tradition will continue on.
Just a reminder to everyone, you can find Our Authors in the Balloon Juice footer on every page. It lists their author page, if they have one, and each author can feature 3 of their books, with links.
I would encourage you all to take a look when you get a chance, we have a lot of talented folks here on Balloon Juice.
J.
@WaterGirl: Thanks for buying the first two books. Though I hope your sister’s name isn’t Kelly. (One of the few nasty negative reviews I received was from a Kelly who received my first books as a gift. Not everyone will love the books, but… geez.)
Groucho48
@MomSense: Yep. The Busted Flush docked at Bahia Mar. He also had a baby blue Rolls Royce turned into a pickup truck. As I said, very much a creature of the 60’s
jnfr
Many congratulations on your books, J.!
I have not only NOT been able to write during the era of 45*, I haven’t even been able to read fiction. Other than a few short stories anyway. My brain simply won’t relax into another world. It’s like I’m on permanent high alert.
I hope it’s going to change once we’re actually into the new timeline.
RSA
@J.: Thanks! That’s very helpful advice.
Alison Rose
Yay!! Just ordered the paperback of the first in the series :) I got super into cozies last year, my anxiety can’t handle thrillers anymore (especially since most “thrillers” are now basically horror books, fuck that shit), but I do still love a fun murder mystery, so cozies are perfect for me. Can’t wait to read it!
J.
@Alison Rose: Thank you so much!
cope
@J.: I just ordered a copy of your first book for my wife, the mystery/romance reader and, like me, a confirmed Sanibelphile.
I once checked out a Randy Wayne White book for her from our library. She told me not to bother checking out any more of them. I don’t recall what she didn’t like about it but I hope her take on your book is more positive. If she likes it, I will buy her the rest of the series.
I ordered from a local independent bookstore rather than Amazon and am curious if that affects your bottom line. For books especially, I try to support local independent merchants.
J.
@cope: Thank you so much! My books are the opposite of Randy’s. He writes thrillers aimed at a male (misogynistic?) audience. My books are meant to be light and fun (well, except for the dead bodies) and are targeted primarily at women, though I have many male readers.
And it’s great that you bought the first book through an indie bookstore. I love my local indie, MacIntosh Books, which I constantly promote. And you can get all the books via Bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores.
Alas, I make very little selling via bookstores because they have to go through Ingram, a Republican-owned distribution company that takes a huge cut for printing and distributing books and screws bookstores too. I make more from selling through Amazon/KDP (and even more selling books directly). But I want to support indie bookstores, so…
ANYWAY, I hope your wife enjoys the book!
cope
@J.: Thanks for the education about publishing economics. In the future, I will try to purchase books so as to benefit the authors as much as possible. I feel the same way about music.
Every year, we get the Sanibel wildlife calendar. That’s our “master” calendar for the year. We got it mail ordered to us from Macintosh Bookstore the last couple of years as health issues kept us from visiting. They didn’t have it this year so I had to track one down from Bailey’s.
I look forward to surprising my wife with your book. She is currently re-reading all her Julie Garwood books and will likely appreciate something new and fresh.
WaterGirl
@J.: No, her name isn’t Kelly. And she loves the books. :-)