Yesterday was the first actual day of Comic Con. I spent a lot of time selling books in the IMPACT books booth, and trying to interview authors.

I attended a panel by renowned comics editor Andy Schmidt who runs www.comicsexperience.com where aspiring comic writers and artists can take classes to learn the ropes and find out what it takes in the comic business.

I also met with 100 Days of Monsters author Stefan Bucher, who does a lot of great work to promote his book. Check out his website at www.dailymonster.com

Lots of cool stuff going on at the show. I had dinner with legendary Tolkien artist John Howe, conceptual designer for the Lord of the Rings movies who talked about designing the gates of Mordor, which on screen are big enough for an army to walk through. John talked about his creative approach to researching and conceiving the images he comes up with, which are amazing.  Check out his book Fantasy Art Workshop: http://www.fwbookstore.com/product/1609/1

Here are some pics:

Okay... my headline is cheesy this morning, for sure. But, I was thinking about writing this topic and I just had that song "Video Killed the Radio Star" in my head—and now you can too as you read this (you're welcome).

So, for my own book, Monster Spotter's Guide to North America, I did a radio tour and I found it to be a fun and relatively easy way to do some really great publicity. The up side is that you don't have to go ANYWHERE. You just call in and they interview you. The downside is that you have to be prepared to speak publicly... it can be a little unnerving to think that you are going to be on radio. Also, setting up a radio tour isn't always easy or cheap (you can hire a PR service that can get you booked or you can try pitching stations yourself, which requires a good deal of work and there are no guarantees).

But, let's say you get yourself on radio. Yay for you! Now what? Well, here are some good things to remember:

• Create a list of compelling or entertaining questions to offer the host that they can ask you about.
• Keep up to date on news stories that fall within your area of expertise and be ready to talk about them. If the DJ does her research, you don't want to freeze.
• Don't over promote! Remember, your main job as a guest is to entertain and inform... when you mention your book, do it casually and not too often. The host should do a wrap up for you, mentioning your book anyway.
• Instead of saying "in my book" refer to your book by title, helping the audience to remember it while also sounding conversational.
• Be able to answer questions like "why did you write this book" or "what got you interested in this subject" quickly—no more than 20-25 seconds.

The main thing is to have fun with it. DJ's like to make jokes, so feel free to play along... just be careful that the interview doesn't get too far off track. The bottom line is to not take yourself too seriously... you want to be entertaining.

Good luck!

Hi Writers,

Today I'm going to focus on the muse instead of the marketing, which I think, is important to do occasionally—after all, we're all writers first and foremost, right?

Working for a publisher people often ask me if I read all of the books that we publish. Now, please don't be shocked... but the truth is I do not. I can't. There are a lot of them.

Sometimes a book comes along that we publish that I do read. The same way that a book happens to come along that you find in a bookstore, or library, or someone gives to you that really speaks to you. Alone With All That Could Happen by David Jauss is that sort of book.

This book is a writing book that is so different and enjoyable that I couldn't help spending some time with it. The book challenges conventional thinking about the craft of writing going so far as to suggest that the "write what you know" adage we've all heard before is not necessarily the best course. The book challenges you to start with from a place you know but to explore things you don't, making your writing process a journey of self-discovery.

This is an introspective writing book. One that makes you feel like a writer just by reading it. Each chapter of the book is an essay upon one aspect of the craft. You'll explore writing other lives than your own, play with different points of view, explore using syntax and rhythm to create a "soundtrack" for your story, and learn what makes a successful epiphany. As it's title suggests, Alone With All That Could Happen is about exploring the boundless possibilities that fiction allows us to write.

Learn more about the book here

Visit the author's website www.davidjauss.com

Hi writers,

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. I spent mine working on a few odd jobs around the house (fixing our leaky kitchen faucet, mowing the grass, cleaning up the house) and my wife and I took our dog to the lake to play in the water. It was very relaxing.

It was the sort of weekend where I looked around at all of the things I had going on and felt pretty good about them. It made me think of something that my Tae Kwon Do instructor once told me, which went something kind of like this:

"You need to take time to appreciate where you are at this exact moment in time, to enjoy the journey..."

I try to apply the things I learn in my martial arts class to my writing and my career, and I think this bit of advice is important. It's easy to become very goal focused, especially when thinking about marketing or publicity. I try to occasionally step back to remind myself to focus on one task at a time. This approach will not only help you to enjoy marketing your work more and make the process of promoting your writing less stressful, but it will also help you be more successful at the task at hand.

From personal experience, as a writer sometimes I tend to have too many irons in the fire and get excited about a couple of new ideas, while I still have one project I'm working on and something else that I need to work on promoting. This kind of energy can be good and help you be prolific, but remember to step back, take time to enjoy working on one project (whether you're writing or trying to generate publicity), and give it the attention it deserves.

Do you ever start to tell someone a story and realize that your giving way too much back information? I have a tendency to do exactly that.

When promoting yourself its important to be concise. In today's world people are impatient (especially the media), so it's a good idea to get your point across quickly. You may want to try writing down your pitch or your description of your work and editing it down and then rehearsing it a bit. Of course, you don't want to sound like a robot so don't over polish it, but instead practice getting your main point across. Your goal is to be quick, clear and interesting.