New Yorker Dru Ann Love loves a good mystery. But more that, she loves introducing new mystery authors to the many readers of her blog, Dru’s Book Musings.
Dru’s Book Musings is a remarkably successful and influential mystery novel blog with 4,000 subscribers. Mystery authors, their publicists, agents, and publishers are constantly knocking on her virtual door. The blog is the winner of the 2017 MWA (Mystery Writers of America) Raven Award; it was selected as one of the top mystery book blogs of 2018 and was short-listed for the 2018 Anthony Award--for Best Online Content.
“I look for authors with new releases, new-to-me authors, authors with debut series--mainly cozies--and authors who have never been on my blog,” said Dru Ann.
Dru’s Book Musings morphed from a reading journal to a simple reading blog. It debuted on July 8, 2008.
“Lucky for me, when I first started my reading blog, I had author friends who visited (it) and would spread the word about the content, especially when their books were reviewed. People kept coming back. When I transferred from a ‘musing’ blog to my feature blog, my audience increased.”
Dru Ann reads mystery after mystery on her commute to and from work. (Yes, she has a full-time job. The blog is a side gig). One day after finishing a book, she thought about the sleuth and wondered what her average day was like when not solving crimes. So, three years after the initial blog launch, she created the fan favorite “A Day in the Life.” In it a mystery author interviews the main character of his/her book about what life is like every day.
The blog grew from there. Now there are reviews, cover reveals (102 since the blog appeared) and author showcases. There have been 2,228 guest posts since the blog dropped.
“I get from 15 to 20 inquiries a month from authors and publicists either to do a guest post, a review or a cover reveal. In most cases, ten will appear on my blog,” said Dru Ann.
Do the math, that’s a minimum of 120 features about mysteries a year. That doesn’t include the books Dru Ann susses out and writes about on her own.
What keeps fans coming back is her attention to “providing fresh and original content to my readers at least five days a week.” But it doesn’t stop there. She is on a number of social media platforms, posts a Thought for Today and a Readers Poll.
To be this dedicated to the mystery reader, as well as the writer, Dru Ann has to have a passion for the ‘who done it.’ And she does. One of the first mysteries that she remembers reading was Encyclopedia Brown.
“I love puzzles and that’s what a mystery book is--a puzzle…you have to put the pieces together to solve it…it’s trying to figure out who did what to whom and the journey the author takes me on to get to that point.”
Dru Ann spends between six and eight hours a week on the blog, in addition to her day job. When asked how she manages to do it all, she said, “I don’t know. It’s all a mystery to me--a puzzle yet to be solved.”
