The information is gleaned from my little non-fiction e-book primer called Youdunit Whodunit! How to Write Mysteries. .

Don’t forget to slip in the Sly Bits:

• As mentioned earlier, a good mystery must follow the Rule of Fair Play. This means the audience should receive the same information as the Protagonist, thus giving the reader a chance to solve the crime by the end of the story
• Your job also involves developing these all-important sly bits — clues to the solution and red herrings to cause reader confusion — and then scattering them throughout the story
• Clues and red herring may be tangible (like a bloody glove) or intangible (like a character’s behaviour).
• Intensify suspense with a chase or a villain who escapes until the last possible moment or page
• Place the Protag or someone close to him or her at risk.

If you found this of interest, you may wish to see the previous posts.

…MORE how-to write a mystery tips and techniques continued in the next Friday post!

Find out more information or how to purchase this e-book, jam-packed with ways to immediately improve your writing, click Youdunit Whodunit (only $2.99US!).

The Black Widow is an intriguing police procedural mystery from a man who’s been in the trenches. To purchase ($2.99 US) or to find out more information, check it out at Smashwords.com. The Black Widow will soon be available from a number of other online booksellers.

The Black Widow by Michael Hanson

Michael kindly offers this note of appreciation for my electronic publishing services, my brief how-to primer, Self-Publish Your E-Book in Minutes, and for my e-publishing course:

When you are getting a little long in the tooth and want to publish a book, modern technology and publishing changes mean that skilled help is necessary.

The lecture on E-Book Publishing given by Nicola Furlong makes it easy for all ages, and her creativity and imagination give the necessary encouragement to take this step to publish your book. She was tremendous help with mine.

Her blog will keep you up to date in a rapidly changing world of fiction and nonfiction reading.

Why not let The Black Widow spin you her web?

Cover for mystery writing primer, Youdunit Whodunit!

LOOSE THE HOUNDS INTO THE MIDDLE:

Other mid-story development tidbits:

• Never introduce the guilty party late in the book; that’s betraying the rule of fair game

• Generate more complications resulting from the criminal’s efforts at concealment or escape; these often result in a really big problem: a second murder or crime

• Remember that the strongest stories are intertwined, so construct your main and sub-plots to resonate or reflect one another. Perhaps your main mystery is a missing child; then a strong sub-plot would be to have one of your character’s searching for their birth family.

• Make it personal: have someone the reader likes be affected by the first murder or crime: maybe as a suspect? Or is in love with the suspect? Or their life’s changed by the crime?

Remember how MURDER SHE WROTE’S Jessica Fletcher always had some relationship with the victim or the suspect? So much so that no one would ever really want to be close to her!

• Develop and show strong motives for at least three characters and you’re off and running

…MORE how-to write a mystery tips and techniques continued in the next post!

Find out more information or how to purchase this e-book, jam-packed with ways to immediately improve your writing, click Youdunit Whodunit (only $2.99US!).

Three interesting guests:

• Jessica Goodman, Wiley and Sons, explained their “How to Cook Everything” app
• Theodore Gray, Touch Press, on creating his wildly popular app, “The Elements, and
• Rhys Cazenove, Enhanced Editions, about producing the very popular, “Death of Bunny Munro”.

The trio offered excellent information and advice.

UnnaturalStates: John & Harry Battling

It was so cool to learn that others are embracing the multimedia enhanced book platform. Though different from our UnnaturalStates Quillr® concept, they were all hip to offering stories and information in a whole new way.

Text alone storytelling and reading is just so five minutes ago!

Read more and see some video of the webinar here.

I jumped on the digital wagon last year by re-publishing my mysteries as e-books. Soon, I began instructing others—many had failed with traditional publishers or were wary of costly Print on Demand—at a Victoria, B.C., college.

Self-Publish Your E-Book in Minutes

Thus, Self-Publish Your E-Book in Minutes! was born.

It’s brief, practical and succinctly covers all the essentials of electronic publication, like formatting, uploading and marketing, and is available online at Amazon.com and Smashwords.com for $0.99.

Prices for popular e-readers Nook and Kindle are coming down below $200.

Getting better all the time. Full NYT article here.

Gotta buy one soon…

It’s now available on the iPhone, Kindle and Smashwords website. See links below.

UnnaturalStates

Check it out at:

iTunes App Store

Amazon.com Kindle

Smashwords.com

Prepare to be intrigued, challenged and shaken up!

Look out Kindle, step aside Nook, run for the hills iPad and put ‘em up Sony reader ’cause there’s a new kid in town: the Kobo eReader.

logo for kobobooks

And who said ebooks were a fad? Welcome little Kobo eReader.

Especially LOVE that you’re a Canuck.

My niece, Anica, carrying 2010 Olympic Torch

Before Apple came along with it’s iconic iPad and soon to be open iBookstore, online booksellers, like Amazon, set the prices of most new ebook releases at $9.99US, regardless of the publishers’ wishes.

This is going to change as Apple has agreed to set its prices higher, between $12.99US & $14.99US.

Now, other retailers, like Barnes & Noble and Amazon, are “yelling Uncle!” and complying. If they don’t, they’ll lose market share tout suite.

Good news for authors and publishers; less so for readers. I like the idea of giving more price weight to newly-released ebooks.

Every dollar counts and the effort, art & craft are worth it.

You may have already been published or perhaps have struck out trying to find a traditional print publisher.

You’ve heard of print on demand and other forms of self-publishing but are wary of costs.

You still want the opportunity to get your work into readers’ hands.

Well, it’s very possible to do so in an extremely inexpensive yet effective way: self publish your work as an ebook and sell it online!

Cover for A Hemorrhaging of Souls

I’ve done it several times and am now selling electronic books at a number of major online book selling sites, like Amazon Kindle Store, Kobobooks and iTunes.

You can do it, too…and if you live in Victoria, BC area, you can spend Saturday, April 24th, with me at the Publish Your Own Ebook course offered by Camosun College.

Here’s the course blurb:

Thinking about publishing your writing but struck out with traditional publishers? Don’t fancy the headache of self-publishing in print? Then it’s time to join the latest publishing sensation. You can publish your magnum opus (or cookbook, or romance, or …) in an electronic book format, sell it through major online booksellers and receive above average royalties as easy as a,b,c… well, almost. This course will introduce you to all things e-book including set-up and formatting, online bookselling sites, e-reader choices, cover image basics and marketing possibilities.

For more info and how to register, check out Publish Your Own Ebook.

It’s just a few hours on a Saturday but once the course is over, you’ll be ready to publish electronically. Hope to see you there!