The April Photo of the Month has got to be one of my favorite of all time. This is a picture of Sam looking positively triumphant after eating his first solid food.

In addition to the regular Photo of the Month, I'm going to begin phasing in a new feature here at StaceyCochran.com. The Video of the Month!

Monday April 28, 2007
Yesterday, I moderated a panel discussion on publishing at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. The panelists were [from left to right] me, Sarah Goddin, Sarah Shaber, Jon Batson, and Katie Jamison.

We had a turnout of about 90 people.

Including bestselling author Diane Chamberlain, whom I met a few nights ago at another event [center in red below]...

Lulu's Henry Hutton looks on...

Michael Graziano, who is set to direct The Stacey Cochran Show for television later this summer, shot the entire event in video and still format, and is editing a DVD that should be available in a few days.

This next Saturday, I'll be in Wilmington for a panel discussion at Pomegranate Books.

Stacey

Sunday April 29, 2007
Yesterday, I drove up to Richmond for the first Richmond Write to Publish Group. We met at the public library downtown in a conference room that I reserved a couple months ago. All total, we had nine people who came, and the discussion was great.

It just so happened that the library was hosting an event for the Society of Children's Books Authors and Illustrators, and so after our discussion, I handed out flyers announcing our next Richmond event to all the writers at this other event.

After the group broke up, seven of us went out to eat at a nearby restaurant. Pictured here (clockwise) is me, Don, Judith, Geoff, Vanessagrace, Jeff, and Thia.

Geoff Zimmerman is the author of Love Never Dies and he was a huge help in getting flyers posted at area libraries prior to yesterday's Meetup.

Our next event will be on June 22 at the Richmond's Fountain Bookstore, which Geoff, Vanessagrace, and I visited after dinner...

Store employee Rose helped me to put up the flyers at the counter (the orange ones between her and I) announcing that event on June 22...

All things said, I had a great time, and I'm really looking forward to growing this group and a new one that Vanessagrace and I have just started up near Mount Vernon, Virginia.

Stacey

Thursday April 26, 2007
We had an amazing turnout tonight at the first Triangle Film, TV, and Actors meetup in Raleigh. All total, we had 28 people who came to the Cameron Village Library meeting room. I had a presentation that included a video documentary of my walking through the RTN studio, as well as a video interview I did a few months ago.

I was just amazed at how bright, experienced, and thoughtful everyone was.

We talked a great deal about the Raleigh Television Network, and about producing a television show. I'm very excited to see how this group develops.

Tomorrow morning, I have to be up early (it's time for me to go to bed) to drive up to Richmond, Virginia where I'm leading the Richmond Write to Publish Group. I'm going to try to get some photos of the event.

Stacey

Tuesday April 24, 2007
Holy smoke, I've been busy! I have about thirty minutes this afternoon, and this is honestly the first time I've had 30 free minutes to write a blog in a week.

This past Saturday, I led an author event in Chatham, Virginia. Two stores in town teamed up to host the event, which included a light breakfast and social at one and a panel discussion at the other. Here are some photos from the event...

After the event, I drove three hours up to Richmond, where I placed flyers in three area libraries and two local bookstores announcing my event this Saturday April 28. In visiting the stores, I found a great bookstore downtown called Fountain. I followed up my visit with a phone call yesterday to try and reserve a space for my next Write to Publish Group in Richmond on June 22, and it was a success. Today, I called back one more time to inquire about possibly setting up a panel discussion at some point in the future with traditionally published and self-published authors.

Here's a photo from Richmond...

I'm really in the thick of things right now, and my goal is to keep my head above water. I have conferences at NC State all this week, final class on Thursday, a TV interview on Thursday evening, a Film and TV Meetup I'm organizing on Friday in Raleigh, a Write to Publish Group on Saturday in Richmond, and then a bookstore event in Raleigh at Quail Ridge on Sunday.

The following weekend, I'm moderating a panel discussion in Wilmington at Pomegranate Books, and things just stay busy all through May. I'm currently trying to line up events for June, July, and August.

Stacey

Saturday April 14, 2007
This has been an amazing day! From 10:00 to 2:00 PM, I attended the Producer's Workshop for the Raleigh Television Network. Afterwards, my PR guru Eileen Batson and I drove down to Wilmington, where I organized the first Wilmington Write to Publish Group. Photos below:

We had a very solid turn-out for our first Wilmington Group, and the conversation was a lot of fun.

Then, I met up with Susan at our hotel downtown and got some quality time with her and Sam.

Afterwards, we went out to eat with a group of friends, and we have since made our way (one block) back to our hotel. Right now, the Azalea Festival is going on so downtown is packed and we're right in the mix of it.

Tomorrow, I'm going to do publicity for our bookstore event coming up on May 5, 2007 at Pomegranate Books in Wilmington.

Stacey

Wednesday April 11, 2007
I am exhausted, but I'm exhausted in the best possible way.

Today, I spent a couple of hours driving around Raleigh to several libraries to post flyers for my author event at Quail Ridge Books on April 29. I've really started to get into the swing of things with this kind of on-a-budget advertising.

For this most recent batch of flyers, I had my PR guru Eileen Batson draw up a professional flyer for this event and send it to me as a pdf. Once I had the pdf, I went to OfficeDepot and bought 1000 sheets of bright orange 8.5x11 cardstock. Then, I took 250 sheets of the paper to Kinko's and had them create 150 8.5x11 flyers and 400 postcard-size flyers.

It's less expensive if you carry your own paper to Kinko's rather than use their standard cardstock.

Once I had all the flyers and postcards, I made a list (with addresses) and map of all the area libraries. Because I had Sam with me, I could only hit a select few, but my goal is to place flyers in each library in Wake County (there are about 15), or until I run out of flyers.

Most libraries have a community events bulletin board, and so on each one I put up a few of the larger flyers and pinned a bunch of the smaller postcard-sized ones in case someone wants one for him/herself.

In the course of doing this, I dropped in on a local newspaper and asked about possibly having a story run in the paper on the event.

And I think I've realized this is what you've got to do for each city. It's taken a couple of years to figure out what is manageable and effective, but I think I've finally figured it out.

There are 2-3 things you can do prior to a bookstore event that are manageable and effective marketing and advertising tools.

1) Post flyers prominently in all area libraries 3 weeks prior to your event. Most libraries welcome this and actually have an appropriate place for you to do so.

2) Drive by your local newspaper offices, introduce yourself, your event, and ask if there is someone you can speak with about running an article on your event.

3) Drive by your local public radio stations, introduce yourself, your event, and ask if there is someone you can speak with about doing an interview regarding your event.

Two days ago, I put flyers in the mail to Meetup members in Charlotte and Greensboro who volunteered to post flyers around their towns for our groups' upcoming events. This is truly a critical component to develop if you're planning writers' groups beyond a reasonable afternoon's drive.

It's also a good way to find writers who are responsible and ambitious in these writers groups who may grow to become assistant organizers.

My big goal is to add 25 cities by the end of the year to what has already been established, which would bring the total to around 30 cities.

I've been using the Meetup.com site very well as the de facto bulletin board for a given city's Writers Meetup. This combined with passing around a sign-in sheet to develop flyer-handout contact people in each city and the Lulu.com staff's alerting Lulus in each town has helped to create a tremendous amount of interest and excitement in what I'm doing.

For the past few days, I've begun being contacted by various strangers around the country who would like me to set up writers' groups in their cities. Then, tonight I was contacted by a regional marketing director for a major U.S. bookstore chain who wants to chat about store events and how I've managed to set up this kind of grass roots campaign.

I'm just ready to take on the rest of the country at this point. The idea of flying from city to city, staying in hotels, and launching writers groups in dozens of places (all the while, promoting The Colorado Sequence) sounds awesome to me.

I love meeting other writers, and I love helping other writers find their way in this (sometimes brutal) business of publishing.

Stacey

Tuesday April 10, 2007
I believe in my writing career, and I believe I have finally hit the ground running with it. Take one look at my events page and you will see that I have a speaking engagement almost every week between now and June.

Tonight, I met with my go-to person at Lulu.com and we began strategizing events for cities around the rest of the country. In the coming year, I hope to be setting up regular speaking events in Chicago, New York, Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Miami in addition to what has already been established in my home state region of North Carolina and Virginia. Beyond that, I may travel internationally setting up writers groups in the U.K., Spain, the Netherlands, Germany.

Right now, my focus is to strengthen and build the writers groups I have, until they hit a critical mass in each of these cities that makes them self-sustaining.

I believe to do so I have to grow a city's group size to roughly 100 members, do 3-4 writers meetups over a 6-8 month period, and book at least one successful bookstore event in that city. At that point, a city will likely have a group large enough to sustain itself, and I will have found an assistant organizer that I can hand the leadership role over to.

I can't wait to see where I'm going to be in twelve months time. It's truly phenomenal.

Stacey

Thursday April 5, 2007
Fans of StaceyCochran.com, you're in for a treat. This evening, I directed an 8-minute short documentary walking through the television studios at RTN Channel 10 in Raleigh. The crew in the studio was setting up for "Take a Stand," a Live television broadcast featuring host Chuck Campbell interviewing NC State Senator Fred Smith who is running for Governor.

Tuesday April 3, 2007
I am cleaning up the blog for the month, put up a new photo of the month. Here is a photo of me feeding Sam his first solid food.

March 2007 Blogs

The March Photo of the Month comes from an author event I attended on March 1, 2007. Pictured here is Margaret Maron, Sarah Shaber, and I. Margaret and Sarah are two of the best mystery writers in the country, and I believe Margaret served as President of Mystery Writers of America a couple years ago.

Saturday March 24, 2007
I've got some final footage of Susan's and my trip to New York. First up, here's a panoramic shot from the Empire State Building.

This next video is from Central Park near the Wollman Rink.

And finally, here's a picture of me looking positively happy in Central Park.

Friday March 23, 2007
I've got a few more photos from New York. Today, I walked down to the Empire State Building. This first photo looks toward the northwest from the observation deck. Midtown Manhattan...

This one is of yours truly.

This is from the observation deck looking southward. I zoomed in on the Flatiron Building.

Afterwards, I decided to walk to the Flatiron Building, which is where the St. Martin's Press and Tor/Forge publishing house is located.

Thursday March 22, 2007
So, we're in New York. It's not a particularly exciting picture, but here's the view from our hotel room window.

Yesterday, I went to the New York Public Library, where I snapped this self-portrait.

And for lunch, I had a burger at Island Burgers, right around the corner from the Ed Sullivan Theater.

Sunday March 18, 2007
Below, you should see a video documentary of the Lulu Authors Group Meetup, which I organized for March 17, 2007 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

I'm going to be in New York this week, and so any emails or blogs you receive from me will be coming from there.

Tuesday March 13, 2007
Can you say busy?

Holy cow, I don't have enough hours in the day. When things are hopping, they're hopping. Two jobs, a baby, literary agents emailing daily, dozens of emails daily...

I keep writing these blogs at like one in the morning because it's the first chance I get to do it each day.

I love it!

Stacey

Monday March 12, 2007
So, I went to Charlotte on Saturday for the first Write to Publish Group Meeting in that town. The group met at a Caribou Coffee, and the discussion focus was on literary agents. All total, we had nine people, and I managed to get some photographs.

I had a great time, and we're planning on starting up a critique group for writers in Charlotte. It looks like the first critique group will meet in Charlotte on April 14. If you have any questions or would like to join, feel free to drop me a line.

Stacey

Thursday March 8, 2007
We're back from the beach, and I have a few photos to share. First, though, if you've sent me email in the past few days, I must apologize. The reason I haven't responded is that I did not take my computer with me. I didn't even try to get to them tonight. I'll work on it tomorrow (Friday).

At any rate, here are the photos. These three are all from our balcony at our hotel. This seagull let me get very close...

This is Sam's first view of the ocean...

And Susan snapped this one of me while I walked the dogs on the beach.

We had a great time, and my allergies subsided nicely while at the beach. Now, I've got to get back to work. I'm driving over to Charlotte Saturday for our first Write to Publish Meetup there. I also have a pile of papers I'm going to have to buckle down on between now and Tuesday, as well as getting to the aforementioned emails.

Incidentally, I have had four agents respond already to the query mentioned earlier this week requesting to see sample pages from The Colorado Sequence. That's always exciting.

Stacey

Tuesday March 6, 2007
At NC State University, it's Spring Break this week, and so Susan and I are hitting the road today. We'll be in Atlantic Beach until Thursday. Time for some rest and relaxation.

Stacey

Sunday March 4, 2007
Well, it's done. I put the last of the agency query letters in the mail just a few minutes ago. All total, there have been a total of 424 sent out since November for my novel The Colorado Sequence. That is every literary agent in the country who will read an action-suspense novel. I've queried everyone.

It'll probably take about a month or two to get all the responses to this very last batch, but I can rest assured that I tried every possible agent.

My goal is to work through each of my novels the same way. All total, I've queried somewhere in the neighborhood of 750 agents for The Colorado Sequence, Claws, and Maggie Redcrest.

The next novel that I plan to do a 400+ query for is Death Cabin. I'm still working through the suggestions that my writing group partner made on the novel over Christmas, and then I'll probably ask Susan to read that corrected draft. That puts the timeline somewhere around May/June for the next massive round of queries.

By the time that's done, I should have the completed first draft of the novel I'm currently writing. Maybe sometime around October/November. That novel is Sacred Kill.

Incidentally, I'm keeping all the rejection letters in separate folders in my filing cabinet. One of these days, I'll break 'em out and take a photo. It's a good-sized stack already with about 400-500.

This Saturday I drive to Charlotte for the first Write to Publish Group that I'm organizing in that town. Right now, we have about twenty-five members.

Stacey

Thursday March 1, 2007
It's a new month, and I cleaned up my blog. In the following video clip, I ask Sarah Shaber about her experience winning the St. Martin's Press/ Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Contest. This contest is one of the best for launching careers of mystery writers.

Sarah will be on a panel I'm moderating at Quail Ridge Books on April 29, 2007.