by Patricia Fry
Writing about animals is nothing new to me. Throughout my forty-year career as a freelance article writer, I often wrote about two of my favorite animals: cats and horses. My first book was Hints for the Backyard Rider, and I wrote numerous articles on the behavior, care, and wonderment of the cat. I had no inkling that my writing path would lead me to the world of cats in fiction.
Many of you know me as the author of the 52-book strong Klepto Cat Mysteries—cozy mysteries featuring Rags, a larger-than-life cat that steals things. The stories become interesting when the things Rags gets his paws on turn out to be clues in the current mystery.
When I sat down to write the first book in this series nearly ten years ago, as I entered my senior years, I had no idea that this would be the most successful writing venture of my long career. I don’t know the size of my fan base, but by the amount of royalties I can guestimate that sales are in the 3,000-book range per month. And people are often surprised to learn that the ebooks (Kindle) far outsell the print books.
Rags definitely has fans. People love him as they would a real cat. They beg me not to let him ever die. They often write to ask if there will be more stories: “When will the next book be out?” The truth is, Rags is a real cat—well, sort of. I patterned him after my mother’s confident, cool cat. My own tabby, Lily, was also an inspiration for this cat character, as she was the klepto cat. She constantly carried her stuffed toys around in her mouth, often dropping them at my feet.
To answer fans’ question: Yes, there will be more Klepto Cat Mysteries, but there’s also something new brewing in the Klepto Cat Mystery factory. There’s a new cat on the block who has inspired a new mystery series: The Calico Cat Mysteries.
We were in the midst of the pandemic year—2020—when we lost our precious Lily to kidney disease. Three months later we saw a picture of a tiny calico that had been found living under a house in the Los Angeles area and needed a home. We embraced her immediately. She came with a name and some baggage, as many feral cats do, but it didn’t take long for Olivia to become an integral part of our family.
Olivia proved to be such an interesting and unique cat that I began sharing pictures of her and true stories about her on my blog and at my Facebook page. People adored her. The more I got to know her and the more her growing number of fans encouraged me, I began to think seriously about featuring her in a Klepto Cat Mystery story. And it happened. Olivia debuted in Book 51—Calico Calamities.
Fans loved the Olivia character and they wanted more, so I sat down and sketched out a couple of story ideas, fleshed out Olivia’s purr-sonality, and before I knew it, I had a new book with fresh and interesting characters, both human and feline. The first in the Calico Cat Mysteries, Oh! Olivia, debuted in May of this year.
And it appears that the work I’ve done over time to promote the Klepto Cat Mysteries has paid off in creating interest in my spin-off series. When you launch a book there are generally things you do right and things you wish you’d done better. Here’s what I’ve learned so far:
1: Find your target.
If you want to launch a new series, and if your current series is successful, target the same audience. Take advantage of the reputation you’ve established. Marketing will be easier the second time around. If it is a new series, do as I did nearly ten years ago before I wrote the first word of my first Klepto Cat Mystery. Research the field—topic, genre, etc.—to make sure your book is a good idea and that there is an audience for your book. If not, throw that idea out and go with a topic or a genre that IS selling.
2: Continue promoting.
Sure, you can take advantage of your laurels, but this is not the time to rest on them. You must get word out about the new series. As I mentioned, I’ve attracted potential readers of the new series to my blog and Facebook pages. Already Olivia has a fan base. Along with this preliminary promotion, I had a new website created: CalicoCatMysteries.com. I’ve established a new Facebook page dedicated to the Calico Cat Mysteries, and I continue to promote Olivia and her first book at all three of my Facebook pages and through my blog.
3: Belong to pertinent organizations.
I’m past director of SPAWN (now WPN), so I continue to learn marketing tips and resources through WPNews and the Market Update. (There’s always something new on the horizon in the book publishing and marketing industry). I’m also a ten-year member of the Cat Writers Association. I participate in the organization, attend and speak at their conferences, and take advantage of the promotional opportunities at the organization website. Network, network, network.
4: Keeping Up
Keep up with other bloggers and organizations related to mystery writing and cats as well as book reviewers, whom I often reach out to when I have a new book to promote.
5: Do blog tours
I write articles related to publishing, mystery writing, etc., I’ve done podcasts and webinars and panel discussions live and online related to mystery writing and/or cats. Now that I have a brand-new series to promote, I’ll be doing more of this.
6: Create handouts.
I’ve had bookmarks and notecards created from my beautiful book covers, which are handpainted by Bernadette Kazmarski. How do I use these? I hand out bookmarks nearly everywhere I go, and I’ll send packets of the notecards along with a first book order or as a thank you or an apology to fans.
7: Be unique.
An Olivia fan offered to create a stamp of Olivia’s pawprint so she can pawtograph her books. Since I have a purchase option for all of my books at my websites, readers can order an autographed and pawtographed copy directly from me. Nice touch, don’t you think? And it seems to be paying off. The only caveat is that I have to go to the post office so often to ship books when I’d rather be writing!
8: Be versatile.
I offer each of the mysteries in both print and ebook formats. Most customers purchase the books through Amazon.com, but I also have purchasing options for the print book at my websites, KleptoCatMysteries.com and CalicoCatMysteries.com. For those who don’t shop online, they can place an order via email.
9: Hire help.
I hire out most of the book production tasks. I do the writing and the promotion, but I hire a web designer, editor, cover designer, and book formatters (who also submit the books to Amazon). This is probably the reason I produce an average of six books per year (Nine books in the year of isolation, 2020.) Amazon is my book producer, and I’m in the KDP exclusive program. I sell my print books through bookstores, etc., but the Kindle books are sold exclusively through Amazon, and I have no regrets about that decision. The royalties I receive at the end of each month confirm that this is the right decision for me.
10: Stay fresh.
I do my best to keep my stories fresh—one way I do that is by continuing to pay attention to Olivia and our other cat, Sophie, as well as the cats I meet in purrson and online. I write from the heart more often than I attempt to create from that place of reasoning and logic, which gives some of my stories an almost fanciful flavor. My stories are a mix of what I know, what I’ve experienced, what I’ve observed, and what I can imagine. I enjoy using my mysteries as a way to teach and to spread an aura of kindness. At my website, KleptoCatMysteries.com, I offer a list of 100 things you can learn from reading the Klepto Cat Mysteries. Ah yes, my writing life is good. And, by the way, my cats are my muse.
Whatever your passion or your muse—no matter how rigid, fun, or frivolous your topic or theme—if you want to sell books, promotion MUST be part of your plan. Make it fun or trudge along reluctantly, but do it. You have no one to praise for your success or to blame if things go awry but yourself.
