by CM Spencer
We are delighted to welcome novelist CM (Catherine) Spencer as our guest.
Catherine's debut novel is the cozy Canadian mystery Road Kill (CM Spencer, October 2012 ebook format).
Today Catherine talks about how a traditional girl ended up self-publishing an e-book.
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Like a lot of novelists, I used to dream of finding an agent and getting published by a big publishing company. Presto — I would walk into one of the major book retailers and find my cover smiling back at me from the shelves. So, I wrote and rewrote Road Kill over the course of two years, read books and websites about finding an agent and writing a killer query letter, and sent out queries to all of the Canadian agencies. Only, no one wanted it.
Photo provided courtesy of
CM Spencer
Undaunted, I spent a summer writing short stories and pitching them to online magazines in the hope of earning some writing credentials. In the course of a year, I was lucky enough to find publishers for four of my stories — hurrah! I also joined a provincial writer's association and took a creative writing course to hone my skills. I combed the web pages of American literary agents and sent out more query letters, this time including my publishing credits, and kept my fingers crossed. Still no takers.
This past summer, I decided to bypass the agent route and sent the manuscript to three small Canadian publishers. I sat back prepared to wait six months to a year for a response and began working on a sequel because mystery series sell much better than one-offs. In June, I attended a literary convention — my first — in my home town of Calgary. I crammed in fifteen panel sessions and author coffee klatches over three days and came out the other side with a new vision for getting published.
The thing is, I used to believe that good writing is rewarded with a publishing contract. After all, there is no editorial control over the quality of self-published work; anyone can self-publish a book these days. So, a self-respecting author needs to wait for an agent and an editor to tell her that her work is worthy of publishing — i.e. can make some decent money.
At the literary convention, I learned the following:
• Self-published authors are now breaking out on the New York Times' Best Sellers List.
• Self-published e-book authors can earn royalties of between 60-85% on their work as compared to, maybe, 15% with a traditional publisher. Some traditionally-published authors are now self-publishing their own e-books for improved profits.
• Amazon e-books are out-selling Amazon hard copy books.
• Canadian mystery writers are just beginning to break into the American market with the growing popularity of writers such as Louise Penny, author of the award-winning Armand Gamache murder mystery series, but it's still a difficult genre for Canadians to crack.
That was enough for me. I could make better money, if I was willing to work hard at promoting and marketing my work, and retain complete control, too. Should I develop a reader following and come to the notice of a publisher, I could still hard-publish my novels in future. Since it doesn't cost anything to e-publish beyond the creation of a book cover, I decided to go for it.
Here is the result of my endeavour. At $0.99, it's a lot less money to purchase than a hard-copy or paperback, and anyone with a computer can download it if s/he doesn't own an e-book reading device. I hope that you enjoy it.
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Always a voracious reader, CM Spencer cut her teeth on Nancy Drew mysteries before moving onto Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Jane Austen. She met her husband, a singer/actor/university professor, while working as an administrative assistant at a university. He didn't actually say "Marry me and see Canada," but that's practically what happened. They have lived on the west coast in Vancouver, on the east coast in St. John's Newfoundland, in the middle in Waterloo, Ontario, and are currently living in Calgary, Alberta with their two daughters.
Road Kill, the first in the Anna Nolan series, is a cozy mystery with an amateur sleuth set in the Rocky Mountain Foothills of Alberta. CM is currently working on the sequel, Town Haunts. She's also written two historical romances set in England after the Napoleonic wars which she intends to self-publish in December 2012: Good Intentions and The Affairs of Harriet Walters, Spinster.
Visit with CM Spencer online at her website or on her blog.
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Road Kill
CM Spencer
An Anna Nolan Mystery
After breaking free of her philandering ex-husband, former stage actress Anna Nolan had to rebuild her entire life. It just figures that now that she's gotten her son off to university and settled into a low-drama life in the Alberta Foothills, the philanderer's turned up again. But even knowing Jack's flair for drama, she never expected to trip over him starring as a corpse on a country road!
Anna becomes the principal suspect in the murder investigation when RCMP Sergeant Charles Tremaine — tall, blond, cool, and nine years her junior — discovers that she's the beneficiary of a fat insurance policy. With Tremaine hot on her heels and too suspicious of her son's alibi by half, Anna tracks down the three very different women Jack was romancing on a local movie set: a kind-hearted but intellectually-challenged extra, an egocentric leading lady with a jealous husband, and a strong-willed stunt woman. But Anna had better step on it because there's more danger careening around the bend.
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