The Post-Social Media Novelist
It’s only been a week since I “deactivated” my personal Facebook account and already I feel like a great weight has been lifted off my…
Backstory: The Story Behind the First Dakota Stevens Mystery, A Real Piece of Work
A Real Piece of Work and the entire Dakota Stevens Mystery Series might never have happened were it not for a bad office chair. During…
Do Less, Achieve More
In recent weeks, there has been a lot of positive activity regarding my latest book, my memoir of the writing life, Perpetuating Trouble. But what…
Perpetuating Trouble: I’m Livin’ the Dream! Or Am I?
I’m pleased to announce the release of my personal memoir about the writing life, Perpetuating Trouble. I’ve been working on this book on and off since…
WANTED: A 21st Century Author Promoter
I love writing. I love sitting down with half a dozen fresh Blackwing 602 pencils, sharpening them to a razor edge and filling up pages…
Print book cover for THE RONALD AND OTHER PLAYS.
The Ronald And Other Plays: A Political Satire of How Trump Won the Presidency
Today I’m pleased to announce the release of The Ronald And Other Plays, a collection that includes five short plays and my first full-length play, The Ronald….
Only Have Time for Essentials
“At 46 one must be a miser; only have time for essentials.” — Virginia Woolf, diary, 3/22/1928 I stumbled upon this quotation earlier this week….
A REAL PIECE OF WORK — NOW ONLY 99¢!
Today I decided to price A Real Piece of Work, the 1st novel in my critically acclaimed Dakota Stevens Mystery Series, at just 99¢. This…
Farewell, Facebook. Ta-Ta, Twitter. I’ve Got Writing to Do.
I’ve been tired of social media for a long time. However, like a drug addict, I’ve continued to take hits off it, hoping to get a…
Why I’m Selling My Books Everywhere Now, Instead of Just on Amazon
Between January 2012 and this month (over 3 years), I sold my novels on Amazon exclusively. I did this under their KDP “Select” (Kindle Direct…
Why I Write a PI Series
I wasn’t going to write the latest Dakota Stevens mystery. Back in June of last year, at a reading I gave from my then-new pastoral novel…
The Night Before the Night Before Christmas
’Twas the night before the night before Christmas, And all through this writer’s head, Not a bad thought was stirring, not even dread. The writer…
Kirkus Reviews Gives 100 Miles a Rave
More than anything, we writers want readers—particularly discerning readers and critics—to get our work. We want readers to see the parallels to other literature and to…
To All So-Called Authors: Stop Doing This; You Look Like Idiots
Maybe I shouldn’t be giving away my writing secrets. Maybe I should be like Ernest Hemingway, who, with the exception of a couple of Paris…
A Successful Interview with Pam Stack on Authors on the Air
This evening, I did my first-ever LIVE radio interview, and I’m very pleased with how it turned out. Host Pam Stack asked me some thought-provoking…
ONE HUNDRED MILES FROM MANHATTAN — A Novel by Chris Orcutt — Now Available!
Please forgive the cumbersome title of this piece. I’m still sick and a little delirious, but I don’t want to put off my readers any…
One of the Best Indie Books of 2013—THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND
IndieReader, the trusted and informative web-zine about all things indie publishing, has included my book of short stories, The Man, The Myth, The Legend, on their…
Chris Orcutt & Dakota Stevens Hit the Airwaves
Today, I’m in my first-ever radio interview. I haven’t heard the completed, edited version yet, so you can bet I’m going to tune in to…
"Rejection": A collage by Chris Blanc.
Crossing the Rubicon: Replying to a Rejection from a Literary Journal
Today I did the unthinkable. In the literary world, what I did is tantamount to crossing the Rubicon. It’s something that, in 20 years of…
Storytime: Chris Orcutt Reads “The Magnificent Murphy,” His Homage to The Great Gatsby
Recently I did a radio interview with Stephen Campbell, the terrific host of “Murders, Mysteries and Mayhem” on the Authors on the Air Global Radio…
Everything That’s Wrong With Ebooks
So I was browsing Kindle books on Amazon earlier today and came upon one that thoroughly pissed me off. Truly, this book represents everything that’s…
Orcutt Books Back on KDP Select
This is just a quick entry to let readers know that my books—The Man, The Myth, The Legend; The Rich Are Different; and A Real Piece of…
THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND is Now Available!
After several months of getting the words right, working with my cover designer and ebook formatter, and ensuring that the book I ask readers to…
Sneak Preview of THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND
My new short story collection, The Man, The Myth, The Legend, will be released in less than a week, but I wanted to give readers a…
Coming Soon: THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND
My new short story collection, THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND, will be released within a month. In the meantime, here are the professions of the…
Dakota Novels Get 5 Stars from IndieReader
IndieReader, the popular and informative web-zine about self-published books, reviewed A Real Piece of Work back in February and gave the novel 5 stars. So when…
Publishing Your Ebook: Don’t Go It Alone
A year ago, when I published A Real Piece of Work, I did it the hard way. I formatted and converted the book myself. Although I…
Thanks for the Incredible Year
A little more than a year ago, I published A Real Piece of Work for the Kindle, not for a second anticipating the terrific success the…
Engaging Novels About a Detective
The other day, after publishing the second novel in the Dakota Stevens Mystery Series—The Rich Are Different—I pulled a giant plastic crate labeled “Dakota Stevens…
The Rich Are Different is Now Available
The second book in the Dakota Stevens Mystery Series by Chris Orcutt, The Rich Are Different, is now available for Kindle on Amazon. In February, I…
The Indie Author's Guide to the Universe: An Interview with Jeff Bennington
Greetings, readers. Today, for the first time in the history of my blog, I’m making somebody else the focus. Today I’m going back to my…
Next in the Dakota Stevens Mystery Series…
Back in late November 2011 when I released A Real Piece of Work, I promised to release book #2 in the series, The Rich Are…
The Free Ebook Experiment — Part 2 —Conclusion
Last week I said I would report on the results of my 2 “free days” on Amazon’s KDP Select: the total number of free downloads,…
Writing vs. Self-Promotion
The big problem facing writers today is finding a balance between writing and self-promotion. I’m currently doing a free promotion of my Kindle mystery novel,…
The Free Ebook Experiment — Part 1
According to the new, social-networking philosophy of book promotion, one of the most effective ways of building your audience is to give away copies of…
It's All About the Reader
ONCE UPON A TIME there was a mystery novel, a mystery novel that only one agent and zero editors believed in. This mystery novel was…
A Shattered Paradigm
I have read hundreds of books on writing. Conservatively figuring an average of 15 per year, over 24 years that makes 360 books on the…
An Open Thank You Letter to Readers
This one is for you readers. For those of you who took a risk on a relatively unknown quantity (me) by plunking down cash for…
You Don’t Need a Kindle to Read A Real Piece of Work
Friends, Romans, Countrymen: I’ve received dozens of messages from would-be book-buyers who say, “I’d love to read A Real Piece of Work, but I don’t…
1,000 Mysteries and the Ideal Reader
A common piece of advice given to writers is to envision your ideal reader and write your book to that person. And although I didn’t…
What I Learned While Publishing the Dakota Stevens Series on Kindle
What did I learn from publishing the first novel in my new detective series on Kindle? A lot of disjointed things that would take too…
Why I’m Publishing My P.I. Series on Kindle
The short answer is this: A writer writes to be read, and the two P.I. novels I wrote that were sitting on my hard drive…
Former home of The Millbrook Round Table, on the corner of Merritt Avenue and Front Street in Millbrook, NY.
Farewell, Millbrook Round Table
Walking into the diner yesterday, I glanced at the honor box containing our village newspaper, The Millbrook Round Table, and was shocked to read the…
Burning Your Ships
A while back, I got in an online argument with another writer. He was proffering financial advice to writers, in effect saying this: “I made…
The Only Thing You Can Control
Toiling away on index cards has a way of putting things in perspective. Whether you’re hunched over a cubicle deep in your local library, or…