by Krista Davis

Not that long ago, there was no self-publishing. Amazon was only a river in South America, and unpublished writers joined Sisters in Crime, hoping to learn and be published. We called ourselves the Guppies, for the Great Unpublished. All these years later, chances are pretty good that you have read a mystery written by a Guppy. We formed critique groups and struggled with the emergence of email. It sounds so silly today to imagine that it was foreign to us. Some of our published sisters gave us great advice. “Understand your genre,” Sue Grafton told us. 

As the first president of the Guppies, I soon saw two things happening. Groups that were continuously led by one person usually languished because everyone assumed that one person would take care of everything. And possibly more important, things were changing fast in the publishing world. Whoever led the Guppies had to be on top of the new developments. We instituted our first rule in the belief that it would keep the Guppies fresh and vital: the position of president would last only two years.

I am so proud today when I go into a bookstore and see the names of former Guppies on books. I can still hear a Guppy friend telling me, “Don’t quit five minutes before the miracle happens.” One of my favorites was “The difference between a writer and an author is perseverance.” 

Go forth and be successful, Guppies. We’re all rooting for you!

About Krista Davis:

New York Times bestselling mystery author Krista Davis writes three mystery series: the Domestic Diva Mysteries; the Paws & Claws Mysteries; and the Pen & Ink Mysteries.

Krista resided in Northern Virginia for many years and lived for a time in Old Town, Alexandria.  Today she lives with an assortment of dogs and cats in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Like her Domestic Diva protagonist, Sophie Winston, Krista loves to entertain friends and family, but would just as soon leave cleaning to someone else.

Website: https://www.kristadavis.com/

For More on the History of SinC: https://www.sistersincrime.org/page/history