January 5 – 11: “Is it possible to over-market a book?”

This week ITW Members Bill Loehfelm, Thomas Perry, L. T. Graham, Lisa Von Biela, Esther Luttrell, Jerry Hatchett and Jean Heller discuss whether or not it’s possible to over-market a book. If a book does not measure up to the marketing promises, does that hurt the entire industry?

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Marjorie Esther Cox Luttrell was born in Daytona Beach, Florida. Her father was a con man. Not a successful one, but he tried. When he left Esther and her mother, Esther was 13 and in the ninth grade; the last she would complete of her formal education – and yet she went on to participate in a PhD filmmaking grant at the University of Missouri in Columbia, became executive assistant to the Vice President of MGM-TV, wrote and sold screenplays, and is the author of several books, including a screenwriting textbook and a State of the Murder series. Living now in the Midwest, she speaks across the country on life after death, screenwriting, on being a writer, and mystery writing. The last feature film, Te Ata, on which she was screenwriter, is due for international release in the spring of 2015.

Most of Jean Heller’s career was as an investigative and projects reporter and editor in New York City, Washington, D.C. and St. Petersburg Florida. Her career as a novelist began in the 1990s with the publication of the thrillers, “Maximum Impact” and “Handyman” by St. Martin’s Press. Then life intervened and postponed her new book, “The Someday File,” to publication in late 2014. Jean has won the Worth Bingham Prize, the Polk Award, and is an eight-time Pulitzer Prize nominee.

Bill Loehfelm is the author of five novels, including The Devil in Her Way, and The Devil She Knows, the first two books in the Maureen Coughlin crime fiction series, as well as the stand-alones, Bloodroot, and Fresh Kills. He lives in New Orleans with his wife, the writer AC Lambeth, and plays drums in a rock-and-roll cover band. Look for Doing the Devil’s Work, the newest Maureen Coughlin novel, in January 2015.

Thomas Perry is the bestselling author of twenty-two novels. His books have won a number of awards, including the Edgar, the Barry, and the Gumshoe. His METZGER’S DOG, STRIP, and THE INFORMANT were all New York Times Notable Crime Books.

Lisa von Biela worked in Information Technology for 25 years, then dropped out to attend the University of Minnesota Law School, graduating magna cum laude in 2009. She now practices law in Seattle, Washington. Lisa began writing short, dark fiction just after the turn of the century. Her first publication appeared in The Edge in 2002. She went on to publish a number of short works in various small press venues, including Gothic.net, Twilight Times, Dark Animus, AfterburnSF, and more. She is the author of the novels The Genesis Code and The Janus Legacy, as well as the novella Ash and Bone.

Jerry Hatchett grew up in the creatively fertile Mississippi Delta, and loves to craft thrilling tales that the reader can’t put down. He writes from near Houston, Texas.

L. T. Graham is the pen name of a New England-based suspense writer who is the author of several novels. Graham is currently at work on the next Detective Anthony Walker novel.