Some time ago I created an Instagram account to explore its possibilities but never actually got around to using it. A few days ago, I decided it was time to flip the switch on this powerful social medium and see what I could do with it.
Instagram currently has more than 800 million users, with more than 500 million using it every day.* While Facebook still has over a billion daily users, despite its troubles, Instagram is obviously a medium on the rise.
How do Instagram's users profile out, compared to the guy pictured above? Last year, 59% were 18 to 29 years old. (Snapchat's key demographic, on the other hand, falls into the 12- to 17-year-old range.)** As well, a majority of Instagram users are female.
Admittedly, my primary interest in using Instagram is to promote my books. Given these numbers, it seems like it might not be a perfect fit. Females under the age of 29 tend not to be avid readers of crime fiction.
However, we must remember that Instagram's growing like a weed, particularly among older users (ahem), and that females in general are consistently the largest audience for crime fiction. So, the numbers need not daunt.
Here's the thing, though. Instagram is an image- and video-driven medium. No long posts (like this one), for example. How to draw attention to my work, then, in a visually creative way?
Instagram strikes me as an effective medium to promote the author, above and beyond the books. As I add to my posts, expect to see photos and short videos related to the office in which I write, the little island on the Rideau Canal where it's situated, shots of me reading the latest book slated for review in the New York Journal of Books, and pics that relate to what I'm currently writing about in the March and Walker Crime Novel series.
Stuff that will give you a daily glimpse of the author at work, his highs and lows, and the world in which he diligently travails, perfecting his craft (!).
If this sounds even vaguely interesting, follow me on Instagram at michaelj.mccann2149 and let me know what you think!
*Source: Instagram
** Source: Smart Insights
I don't usually read books about true crime. I prefer crime fiction, since I'm in the fiction business, but I made an exception recently to review I'LL BE GONE IN THE DARK by Michelle McNamara, and I'm very glad I did.
McNamara was a true crime blogger and journalist who spent every free hour of her time sifting through information about a serial rapist and murderer who committed numerous offences in California during the late 1970s and early 1980s. He had been connected not only to the crimes of the East Area Rapist but also the Original Night Stalker and perhaps the Ransacker as well.
The author used her blog to communicate with fellow amateur investigators, she kept in touch with detectives investigating the various series of crimes, and worked with other journalists. The search for this sexual predator was, as the subtitle suggests, an obsession.
When she passed away in her sleep unexpectedly in 2016 at the age of 46, she was in the process of writing this book. The manuscript was completed and prepared for publication by two friends who were also involved in her research. It's a remarkable book by a remarkable woman who passed away too soon.
Read my full review in the New York Journal of Books here.
Now that I've been writing reviews for the New York Journal of Books for a while, some of my money quotes, the punch line of the review, have been showing up on the paperback editions of the books.
For example, the mass market edition of The Nowhere Man: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz (Minotaur Books) included my statement that "The Nowhere Man is a good ride down a toboggan run of nonstop action and intrigue." The quote's also included on his website. While I also pointed out what I thought were flaws in the novel, I really did think it was a well-plotted story, and I was pleased to see my money quote included in the softcover edition.
The paperback of Heartbreak Hotel by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantyne Books) recently hit the book rack in my local grocery store, and lo and behold, there was a money quote from the New York Journal of Books on the back cover. I used my cellphone to snap a photo of it (above).
I wrote the NYJB review for this novel, but unfortunately I didn't write these words. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but I eventually discovered that the quote is actually from a 2015 NYJB review of Motive, an earlier Kellerman novel reviewed by someone else.
While the use of the quote suggests that the NYJB is telling you Heartbreak Hotel demonstrates how Kellerman "has mastered the art of lean, evocative prose" and that it proves this series "grows stronger with each volume," let me set the record straight. In my opinion, this novel was poorly written, with terrible metaphors and an overall lack of interest in good prose. As far as growing the series stronger with this volume, I concluded that Kellerman mailed this one in and exerted no effort to write a novel that would attract new readers.
You can read my review here.
I don't want to be the kind of book critic who trashes everything in sight. I've written very positive reviews of other novels for NYJB, but Heartbreak Hotel struck a nerve. It was a crappy book that was written, edited, and published with almost palpable cynicism in the belief that Kellerman's faithful followers will consume whatever they churn out and love it, regardless of how poor a product it is.
I don't have a problem with Ballantyne using someone else's money quote from an earlier Kellerman novel to puff a novel I panned. Happens all the time. No big deal. I just want to set the record straight, here and now. I repeat: Kellerman's prose in Heartbreak Hotel is lardy and off-putting, and this volume wouldn't encourage any new reader to bother spending five seconds looking up earlier installments in the series.
There. Now that's off my chest.
Soho Crime's mandate is to publish "atmospheric crime fiction set all over the world." Their author list includes the likes of Colin Cotterill, whose novels are set in 1970s Laos, Martin Lίmon, whose series features American army investigators in South Korea in the same time period, and Henry Chang, whose contemporary crime novels are set in New York City's Chinatown.
I've had pretty good luck exploring Soho Crime's titles as a reviewer for the New York Journal of Books, and that luck held when I selected Australian Garry Disher's Signal Loss for review.
I must confess I hadn't heard of Disher before, despite the fact he's published 40 books to date, but I enjoyed reading Signal Loss. Here's why I liked it.
Our challenge as readers is to find new writers with new voices and new perspectives. Many of the old familiar bestsellers have written themselves out, and their new publications are often not worth buying. Thankfully, Soho Crime is opening up our horizons and bringing us new names to try out.
Those of you who follow The Overnight Bestseller may remember that I'm a fan of vintage paperbacks. I have a shelf in the basement filled with Ace Doubles, Dell mysteries, and Pocket Book westerns. Almost all of them are reading copies, dog-eared and chipped. In fact, I just finished re-reading And Be A Villain by Rex Stout in a Bantam Book edition printed in 1950 that is so beat up the pages have all come away from the binding and I have to pick them up one at a time to read the story. That's how much I love these books and the stories they tell.
Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I had an opportunity to review the first-time publication of The Knife Slipped, a Cool and Lam mystery published by Erle Stanley Gardner writing as A. A. Fair. This manuscript was recently uncovered and published by Hard Case Crime. It was originally intended by Gardner to be the second novel in the series but was rejected by his publisher. While I was at NoirCon 2016 in Philadelphia I had a chance to meet Hard Case Crime publisher and editor Charles Ardai. We talked about the discovery of this lost gem, and he graciously provided me with a copy of the book when I mentioned my review copy hadn't yet arrived in the mail.
Read my review of The Knife Slipped in the New York Journal of Books here: http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/knife-slipped
Enjoy!
Recently I was approached by the New York Journal of Books to join their staff as a featured reviewer of new Mystery & Thriller publications. I'm pleased to be joining this well-known online source of quality book reviews, whose panel includes "bestselling and award-winning authors, journalists, experienced publishing executives, tenured academics, as well as highly experienced professionals across a number of disciplines and industries."
For my review of the Swedish crime fiction novel THE VANISHED by Lotte and Soren Hammer, please click here.
