"PW got tired of smackin' me around": Building an Online Community

Know More: Duane Swierczynski, Five Easy Questions, Web Journalism 2.0, Five Easy Questions

"For the longest time, Publishers Weekly treated me bad. Called my 'disorganized' and 'choppy.' Took one look at Big Book O' BeerSecret Dead Men and said it was 'muddled.' Said my little ol' Wheelman was "confusing." Dang. But now, with the publication of The Blonde, all that's changed. Looks like PW got tired of smackin' me around..."

If you read between all those self-deprecating one-liners, you'll see that crime novelist Duane Swierczynski has built a solid reputation in the literary world. This week he visits The Publishing Spot to discuss Damn Near Dead--a new compilation of "geezer noir" he edited.

Welcome to the first installment of my interview with Swierczynski, part of my deceptively simple feature: Five Easy Questions.

In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a serialized set of weekly interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing...

Jason Boog:
How did you build your online community? How did this community help you in the process of editing The Damn Near Dead anthology? What are your favorite sites within the hardboiled blogosphere?

Duane Swierczynski:
I have an online community? How come nobody told me...

Secret Dead Blog is fast approaching its second anniversary, and if it has any kind of following, it's pure accident. I started it a month after I sold The Wheelman to St. Martin's Press, figuring it would be a good way for potential readers to learn more about me.

Slowly, readers and writers started finding the site -- but a lot of that has to do with Sarah Weinman linking to me on her Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind blog from time to time. (And including me in her list of "Cabana Boys"... but that's another story.)

I just try to keep the posts honest and interesting. I also never want it to get in the way of my fiction writing -- which would be beside the point, you know?

I'm addicted to hardboiled/mystery blogs: Mystery*File is a must-read for the good old stuff; The Rap Sheet is essential for the new. The best clearinghouse for this stuff is Graham Powell's Crime Spot, which gathers some of my favorites (Bill Crider,
Sara Gran, Lee Goldberg, First Offenders, The Outfit, Joe Konrath,
Dick Adler, David Montgomery), all under one convenient roof.

Devoted to publishing, publishers and to those who craft the written word

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