Readers, Writers, and Marketeers: Who Killed Brienne Cross?
By J. Carson Black on Jan 11, 2012 with Comments 5
My thriller, THE SHOP, has had a checkered career. This book got me the agent of my dreams, one of the best in the business, who could get the undivided attention of every big publisher in New York. She read the book on a plane during a terrible thunderstorm, and told me that reading the book was the only thing that kept her mind off the prospect of the plane crashing. She was positive the book would sell, and sell very well.
But that didn’t happen.
Meanwhile, my husband Glenn and I had built a promotional blog to attract agents and publishers called “Who Killed Brienne Cross”? whokilledbriennecross.com
Putting together “Who Killed Brienne Cross” was a labor of love. We created an alternate reality, adding stories, interviews, photos, and comments over two years’ time. Some of our friends commented, too—and those comments are pretty funny. If nothing else, “Who Killled Brienne Cross” should qualify as a very nice piece of performance art. But I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t yearn to show it off to the world.
Fast-forward to the summer of 2011. Thomas & Mercer, Amazon’s thriller imprint, bought THE SHOP as part of a three-book deal. THE SHOP will be rereleased, newly-edited and packaged, on February 6, 2012.
No longer will we have to find a way to promote the book to publishers.
Now we want to promote THE SHOP to readers.
And so I have this labor of love—I’ll be frank with you, this is my baby—still sitting up there on the Internet, pretty as a picture and twice as sweet, and I’d like to put it to work.
So I’m asking. Readers, fellow authors, entrepreneurs, marketing gurus, publishers, husbands, wives, kids, cute little kittens and puppies. How can we use this site to get the news out about THE SHOP? I’d love ideas, no matter how crazy, off-the-wall, staid, obvious, creative, or scintillatingly brilliant.
The Shop — new Thomas & Mercer edition available Feb. 6th! Pre-order Now!
Link to this page
Just finished reading The Shop last night. LOVED it! The slow unraveling of the mystery was phenomenal and kept me going straight through to the end! Thanks for the fabulous read! Ever considered a series based on Jolie or Landry?
Thanks, Darcie, I appreciate that so much. Landry is in my short story, THE BLUELIGHT SPECIAL.
I read The Shop and loved it. Would love to see Jolie and Landry cross paths unexpectedly from time to time. Loved the fleeting glance at the end of the book – classic. Just finished Darkness on the Edge of Town. I read The Shop because of the offer on Amazon Kindle. Now I’ll purchase, download, read more books by you since I found I like your writing style. I’ve used the old word of mouth aspect to tell friends and acquaintances I like the book. People in airports are always looking for something to read – not sure how to catch that audience. Posters in stores?
Leslie, I’m so glad you loved THE SHOP. I did put Landry in my short story, THE BLUELIGHT SPECIAL. Not sure what I will do next, but at some point down the road I can see Jolie and Landry running into each other. I also plan to write another Laura Cardinal book after I finish my third book for Thomas & Mercer. And thank you for telling people about my books. I think word of mouth is the best thing. It’s funny, but when I first started writing THE SHOP my husband and I coined the phrase “Airport Fiction,” because I remember picking up THE BLUE NOWHERE by Jeffery Deaver on a cross-country flight, and I did not get my head out of that book for three days! I wanted to emulate that as much as I possibly could–so we’re on the same wavelength.
I had the very good fortune to be chosen to narrate The Shop as an audiobook, and I loved recording every syllable. Jolie and Landry are such well-drawn characters that I find myself missing them like old friends, wondering what they might be up to now. Thank you for creating this book!