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  • I'm a writer, journalist, and the editor of The Gambit, the alt-weekly newspaper in New Orleans.

    Journalism: My work has appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Globe & Mail (Canada), The Times- Picayune (New Orleans), The Oregonian, and Willamette Week, as well as in magazines including Details, Vogue, Publishers Weekly, and Portland Monthly.

    Publishing: Tight Shot, my first novel, was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Its sequel, Hot Shot, was roundly ignored by everyone, but was a far better book. I'm also a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

    Stage: I was a member of the Groundlings and Circle Repertory West in Los Angeles, and am a playwright (see "Stage" in the right-hand rail).

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« Willamette Week: great cover | Main | The Portland tram and "blipsters" in the New York Times »

January 27, 2007

Why writers need websites

I was captivated by this story in today's Portland Tribune: Writer Rene Denfeld investigated a murder in the Portland homeless-youth subculture, got caught up in the story, spent years doing interviews, and ended up writing All God's Children, which sounded like both a true-crime thriller and a sociological study. (Street kids and their issues aren't a problem endemic to just Portland, but it's certainly epidemic here.)

The writer of the Trib story, though, had left me wondering about a couple of things, and I didn't want to wait for the book to find out the answers. Sure enough, Denfeld had a website with contact info, and within a few hours I not only had the answers to my questions, but also a very nice letter that really made me curious to find out more about her experiences.

Editors like Miss Snark are adamant in their belief that every writer needs a website. So are most agents. But the real connection, the important one, is the one with the reader (aka potential customer). If I wasn't sure I wanted to read Rene's book before this, her letter cinched the deal.

And she didn't have to sit at a card table in a bookstore, hoping that someone showed up, just to make the sale.

01:42 AM in Journalism, Non-fiction, Oregon, Publishing |

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    Washington Post:
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    ----------


  • EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE
    BEST FIRST NOVEL
    MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA

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    New Orleans Times-Picayune:
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    Publishers Weekly:
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STAGE

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  • TWO IN THE BUSH
    An evening of comedies. In The Stud Mule, the world's richest woman arranges to be impregnated by a doltish escort; in Snatching Victory, an earnest college student runs afoul of her lecherous professor and the dour head of a women's-studies department (Le Chat Noir, New Orleans; 2003).

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  • Tom Piazza: <i>Why New Orleans Matters</i>

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