J L Wilson's Page

The second book in my Fatal Writers' Conference series is out, this one set at a Florida resort (link here for information http://tinyurl.com/aenm9m). I modeled the setting after a conference I attended a few years ago, and threw in some of the publishing people I met there (as well as at othe conferences).

In the course of this series I've been able to 'kill off' several best-selling authors, a publisher, a publisher's assitant and (in the next book) a f… Continue

As many of you may know, when promoting a book, there is no instant feedback. Usually we're promoting a book that we:

• wrote years ago


• sold a while ago


• edited a few months ago


• forgot about once it was turned in for final line edits


• and now have to revisit to promote it

The entire time we're promoting it, we don't know if the promotion is effective because we won't get a royalty check for a few months, so it's hard to determine if the ty… Continue

Obligatory mention: a book of mine released on Tuesday. Brilliant Disguise is a fun book. I bill it as "Undercover FBI agent meets small town mom. Mom wins."

Here's the blurb:

BLURB START

Nick Baxter, an undercover FBI agent, thinks his BRILLIANT DISGUISE will fool the hicks in New Providence, Iowa. They won't suspect he's there investigating widow Shannon Delgardie, under suspicion of treason. What Nick doesn't know is that everybody in town is conspiring to protect her and investigate him i… Continue

It was around this time two years ago that I signed my first publishing contract. I think that anniversary makes me pause, just like the anniversary of my father's death makes me pause, my birthday makes me pause, etc.

I had a brief moment of panic this weekend. Am I releasing too many books too often? Should I back off? Should I wait?

Here's the scenario: I had 4 books release last year, two of which are in print now. This year I will have 4 more new books out and 5 total books in print. For… Continue

My hometown was flooded in June, and it's preoccupied a lot of my thoughts for the last few weeks. It's a little town halfway between Waterloo and Cedar Rapids in Iowa. I grew up there and my 89-year-old mother still lives there. Luckily she's on the south side of town and the flooding was on the north side. She was without power for several days, and several family friends had homes damaged, but overall, she and they emerged unscathed.

It really made me realize how much we take for granted --… Continue