Between the almost 2 dozen author interviews for Peace, Love, and Crime, I may throw in an interlude from time to time for a change of pace. Thus today’s post title, Interlude 1.
According to Webster’s Dictionary, an interlude is a short interruption or, in musical terms, a short piece inserted between longer pieces. That fits here because the PLC anthology and its many components are a focal point for today’s post.
Several months ago, a comment by PLC’s publisher, Jay Hartman from Untreed Reads, got me thinking. Jay said (greatly paraphrasing from memory) anthologies tend to have a brief market life and then everyone moves on. To his credit, Jay actively works to keep his back shelf in people’s minds even while promoting new works, whereas some other publishers might let them accumulate considerable dust.
. . . anthologies tend to have a brief market life and then everyone moves on.
(paraphrased from Jay Hartman)
That makes sense. Consider a single-author book versus a multi-author anthology. How much effort will an author put into marketing his/her latest? The author (or maybe co-authors) who has taken far longer to write and gets a much larger share of sales, will be busy marketing that book for months. Not so the anthology author, especially since some are series short story writers (meaning they write and submit many in a short space of time). They write the next after each submission.
My idea from Jay’s comment was to mash up virtual book tours with author interviews and invite each author, as well the editor and publisher, from the Peace, Love, and Crime anthology to have their day on my blog. Of course, my expectation is that they’ll share the posts wherever they are in the virtual world—blogs, websites, Facebook and Twitter feeds, etc. More than that, they’ll share each other’s interviews the same way. That will expand the reach of each interview far beyond what each of us can do alone.
Will this be successful? Will it help promote interest in and sales of the anthology beyond what traditionally occurs in that market? Time will tell.
Peace, Love, and Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of the ’60s is available from the publisher and your favorite retailer. If it’s not in your local, indie bookstore, you can order it through them to support your local businesses.
You can also order a face mask and mug at the above link.
About Claire
Claire’s short story, “Spirit in the Sky,” is one of the 22 stories in Peace, Love, and Crime. She is working on a novella and the first book of a trilogy, both in a medieval setting that is not Earth, and has 8 short stories published (the 9th is forthcoming in 2021) with another 20+ in progress or searching for a home.
She works from her home in Phoenix, having transplanted herself mid-2020 from a lifetime in New England.
Mural tribute to Norman Greenbaum’s 1969 hit song, Spirit in the Sky Short story anthology includes, “Spirit in the Sky”
Next Week
Look for Josh Pachter’s author interview. If all goes well with bandwidth and timing, we’ll have a video component as well!
“A medieval setting that is not Earth” — can’t wait to read it! Enjoying your interviews. ?
Ha! Lets me play with the time frame and what expectations there are regarding gender roles and such while providing a setting that will have some familiar aspects.
Glad you’re enjoying the interviews. Yours is coming 😉
Thanks for this proactive approach to spreading the word about PL&C. Wouldn’t it be lovely to have a brilliant mural for each of our stories!
Indeed, Wendy, that would be fun. I was lucky that the mural was being painted as I wrote the story and that I learned of it in time. Interestingly enough, the mural is on the back of a building in which I had worked when I lived in Malden. Those factors led me to dig deep to come up with the story.