J. A. Konrath

J. A. Konrath
Born 1970
Illinois
Occupation Novelist
Genres Mystery, Thriller, Horror


www.jakonrath.com

Joseph Andrew Konrath (born 1970, in Skokie, Ill.) is a fiction writer working in the mystery, thriller, and horror genres. He writes as J. A. Konrath.

Contents

Biography

Konrath graduated from Columbia College in Chicago in 1992 and spent the next 12 years garnering close to five hundred rejections for nine unpublished novels. His tenth book, Whiskey Sour, was picked up by Hyperion in 2003. It was the first in a series featuring Lt. Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels of the Chicago Police Department. He’s since published dozens of short stories and articles, been translated into eight languages, and edited an anthology called These Guns for Hire for Bleak House Books.

Konrath’s books are known for combining humor with terror. His work has been translated into ten languages. He lives in Schaumburg, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago. J.A. Konrath teaches writing at Dupage College, Illinois.

He’s also known in the writing community for his work in self-promotion. Konrath believes that writers must play a large part in marketing their own books, and his blog, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing, focuses on this. He has outspoken and somewhat controversial views on advertising, the publishing industry, and internet publicity.

In 2006, Konrath mailed out close to 7000 letters to libraries across the United States with fellow mystery author Julia Spencer-Fleming, touting their books to librarians.

Later that year, Konrath signed books in 612 bookstores across 28 states. The booksellers he met on this three month journey were thanked by name in the acknowledgments of his fourth novel, Dirty Martini.

Under the name Jack Kilborn, he penned the novel Afraid for Headline UK/Grand Central.

Konrath’s website features many free downloads, including three full novels.

He is an advocate of the Amazon Kindle and eBooks, having released a number of previously unpublished works to online retailers. As of June 2009 he had become one of the top selling authors in Amazon's Kindle Store.[1]

Bibliography

Novels

Tie-in stories

Other short stories

Unpublished novels

All of these books are available as free downloads at Konrath’s website.

Audio

Konrath’s books are available through Brilliance Audio. Dick Hill and Suzie Breck are the voice talents, doing characters in dialect and making the reading sound like a play. Konrath also voices some characters on these productions, and also records short stories as an extra bonus.

Continuing characters

Awards and recognition

Joseph A. Konrath is a Fellow of the Association of Independent Authors (AiA)

External links