The Murder of Mary Russell: amuse bouche

Writing the cover copy for books–those snippets on the dust jackets–is a delicate art.  A bit of plot is great, but not just plot, and NEVER spoilers.  (Yes, I’ve had those.)  A hint about the characters: who they are, where they’re going, and perhaps a reminder of where they’ve been if the book is from a series.  The…

Read More

Saving the day

I was in my local Bookshop Santa Cruz the other day when the owner came up to me to say, Thank you, for saving our day.  Seems that last Thursday when I went in to sign their copies of “Mary’s Christmas”was the day that Stormageddon descended on Northern California, and hanging around book stores was…

Read More

Countdown to Dreaming Spies: galley proofs

The proof, or galley stage of a book is when I receive a stack of printed matter that shows what the book will actually look like. This is always a surprise: Wow, it’s a real book! With margins! And pretty stuff!—since the publisher’s art department loves to contribute their little extras to the reading experience, whether it’s…

Read More

Small businesses

This is Small Business Week, celebrating American entrepreneurs.  Which makes for a nice irony, in that the business practices of Amazon against Hachette books has recently come to light.  I am not published by Hachette, but many of my friends are, and many of the books on my shelves come from that house.  However, contract…

Read More

Think big, shop small!

Small Business Saturday is coming!  For those of us who love local, who shudder at the thought of Target at 5:00 am the day after Thanksgiving, who believe in our bones that Thanksgiving shopping is a sign of the End Times, there’s Small Business Saturday.  Shop local on the day after the day after Thanksgiving,…

Read More

The Art of Detection, real cheap

The Art of Detection is the book that links Inspector Kate Martinelli of the SFPD with the oddity that is the world of Sherlock Holmes.  It’s what happens when an editor wistfully reflects aloud that she would love to see what a meeting of Kate and Mary Russell would look like, which causes a wicked…

Read More

Homecoming…with books

So I get home after a week in New York with publishers and Bethesda with Malice Domestic, and to my shock I find that the book elves haven’t shelved the boxes of books stacked in my new study.  What, you guys on strike or something? So guess what I’m doing this week?  Oh, in addition…

Read More

Sherlock, at last!

Some weeks ago, Team LRK put up an e-book collection of my writings on that fellow with the pipe and the violin.  At last, it’s available in an actual paper version!  There are eight essays that range from my explanation of how old I think Sherlock Holmes is to the very academic introduction I wrote…

Read More

What do I want in a book cover?

First of all, I want it to evoke the book without giving away the plot. (Garment of Shadows: young woman in Western clothes gazes at a vaguely North African landscape: check.) Then, it needs to catch the eyes from across a crowded bookstore—or as a 2” version on a screen. (Rich glow of color; a…

Read More

Indies and Es

I promised yesterday that I would post today on the question of Independent Booksellers and their relationship with eBooks, and here we are. Yes, Indies sell eBooks, more and more Indies all the time.  They (and I, frankly) have too long been frustrated by watching their customers browse the shelves, stand reading a book for…

Read More