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What is this?
It's Bill Peschel's professional and personal home on the web. Welcome. Poke around in the drawers and cupboards. There's a lot of interesting stuff here.
What's the Reader's Almanac?
It's my 2008-2009 nonfiction book project. A year's worth of entertaining and thought-provoking stories and anecdotes about writers and their books, tied to the day they occurred. Published regularly. Here's a list of the essays published so far.
Why is it on the web?
I don't have an agent or a contract, so this is my way of building an audience, and seeing if there's any interest in the book. The daily deadlines don't hurt, either.
Are you going to write anything else here?
Sure. The occasional book review, a collection of links to neat articles and websites, and my opinions. You know, the usual stuff you find on the web.

Recent Reader's Almanac Posts
The End of the Affair (1893)
Arkansas Prays For Mencken (1931)
Donne Undone (1602)
Stephen Crane’s Bitter Heart (1895)
Lolita Breaks Out (1956)
The Brontës Query A Publisher (1846)
The Execution of Isaac Babel (1940)
When The Shift Hit The Fan In Dublin (1907)


Recent Reviews
Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days. Al Columbia.
Mostly Harmless. Douglas Adams.
Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop. Lee Goldberg.
Prince Valiant, Vol. 1: 1937-1938. By Hal Foster.
Be Amazing. Maggie Koerth-Baker with Will Pearson and Mangesh Hattikudur.

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<< Learning A Little About A Lot | Home | Why Don't You Take A Stress Pill, Bill, And Relax ... >>

September 18, 2006

You Gotta Have A Gimmick


These days, it's not enough to be published. You got to have a platform, an audience, something that separates you from the rest of the pack.

Or, as Lynn Scanlon puts it at The Publishing Contrarian: A Hook!

If your story has a child with Down's Syndrome as a main character, as in "The Memory Keeper's Daughter," you've got an audience to market to. If you're an Afghan, there's thousands in the U.S. eager to read "The Kite Runner."

In short, put in something that interests a particular group, and you've got potential sales.

And if you can't think of anything, well, you can always fall back on sex.

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3 comments about

'You Gotta Have A Gimmick'

Bill, thanks so much for dropping by The Publishing Contrarian and then linking to my blog. I really appreciate it when fellow bloggers drop by.

Lynne AKA The Wicked Witch of Publishing

Posted by Lynne W. Scanlon on 09/18

You’re welcome!

Posted by Bill Peschel on 09/19

Ah, for the innocent days when bringing on a man with a gun was enough.

================
Detectives Without Borders
“Because Murder is More Fun Away from Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

Posted by Peter on 09/28
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