Mystery authors today not only have to write a good book, they must help it get into the hands of readers. Today’s authors have multiple choices to bring their book to life. From getting an agent and a large press offer to deciding to go with a small press or to self-publish, hear how authors decided upon their unique publication path.

Emily Arsenault: is the author of several literary mysteries, including The Broken Teaglass, a New York Times Notable Crime Book, In Search of the Rose Notes, a Wall Street Journal Best Crime Book of the Year, The Last Thing I Told You, What Strange Creatures, and her young adult novels The Leaf Reader and All the Pretty Things. She lives in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, with her husband and daughter. She will speak about getting an agent and working with a large press, though she has also worked with a smaller press, Soho.

Susan Cory: is an award-winning residential architect in Cambridge, MA. She has a brown belt in karate. Her mystery series, beginning with Conundrum, features Iris Reid, also a Cambridge architect, as an amateur sleuth trying to uncover a murderer at her Harvard reunion. Facade finds Iris drawn into a kidnapping scheme while teaching at Harvard. Doppelganger, the third book in the series, features an obsessed con artist who implicates Iris in a crime, then tries to take over her life. In the fourth book, Collateral Damage, a lover from her boyfriend's past reappears on the scene. Susan has self-published all her novels, and will speak from that perspective.

Matt Cost: has owned a video store, a mystery bookstore, and a gym, as well as teaching history and coaching various sports. His first traditionally published novel was I Am Cuba: Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. He is also the author of the Mainely Mysteries trilogy featuring private detective Goff Langdon. The series debuted with Mainely Power, and continues with Mainely Fear (December 2020) and Mainely Money (March 2021). He will speak from the perspective of a writer who pursued agents for twenty years, had one briefly, and finally decided to go with a small press.