A Writer's Life

Frank Sinatra Dies Hard, Baby

One of Frank Sinatra's best dramatic performances was as NYPD Detective Joe Leland in the gritty cop thriller THE DETECTIVE, which was based on the Roderick Thorpe novel of the same name (the movie also starred Lee Remick, Jaqueline Bisset and Robert Duvall). Thorpe wrote a sequel called NOTHING LASTS FOREVER, again featuring Det. Leland...only this time, most of the story unfolds in a Los Angeles skyscraper taken over by terrorists. Sound familiar? It should. The book was adapted into the movie DIE HARD. So, in other words, Bruce Willis took over the role originally played by Frank Sinatra (can you imagine him swinging from the Fox Tower screaming "Yippee Ka-yaa Motherf****r"?). This is old news, but news to me nonetheless... I only just stumbled on it today, going through some old books of mine. It was like discovering that Sean Connery wasn't the first actor to play James Bond on screen (Barry Nelson was) or that Peter Falk wasn't the first Columbo on TV (Bert Freed was)...

It Was Hard Enough Writing The Book, Do I Have to Sign It, Too?

Margaret Atwood took the high-tech approach to avoiding the book tour -- she created a machine that would allow her to sign books in distant locations from the comfort of her living room. Now a publisher is taking a decidedly low-tech approach -- they are hiring people to sign books for the authors. The Guardian reports:

They have posted an advert on the listing site, Craig's List, inviting a team of part-time workers to fake the signatures and get paid in cash for the privilege.

The advert says it is looking for 14 people who can do a blitz of false autograph signing on behalf of two unnamed co-authors of a newly released, and equally anonymous, book. "You will need to be able to copy the look and style of both author's signatures," it says.

[...]The advert says the fake signing, to be held in Los Angeles, will run over two days at eight hours a day. Each signing will take 15 seconds or less, and at that rate the team of 14 could sign up to 53,760 copies.

People Are Raving About Axel's New Dick

My buddy Axel Brand just got a rave review from Library Journal for his debut novel THE HOTEL DICK:

With a narrative voice reminiscent of Dragnet's Joe Friday and a spot-on 1940s style that subtly slips modernisms into the smooth, often humorous telling, Brand has written a sound period piece featuring Lt. Joe Sonntag. Sonntag maintains a cool approach when movie star Spencer Tracy appears to be the only viable suspect in the murder of a hotel detective. The plot is as devious as any of Donald Westlake's and hard-boiled enough to please Bill Pronzini fans. The end result is pure entertainment.

Axel also got a rave from Kirkus, who said, in part:

Brand's debut unfolds in leisurely fashion, with many detours. His noir style effectively combines muscle and cheek, and Sonntag is an appealingly laconic sleuth.

I haven't read the book yet myself but I am sure, knowing Axel, that it deserves all the acclaim it has been getting.

Found Money

It used to be that once a book fell out of print, and the rights reverted back to the author, that was pretty much the end of the line for that particular title. That changed several years back when the Authors Guild  teamed up with iUniverse to launch the "Back in Print" program for previously published books. For no charge to Authors Guild members,  iUniverse scans a copy of the out-of-print book, designs a new cover, and offers it as a print-on-demand paperback with the author getting a 20% royalty from every sale. A lot of authors, including William F. Buckley, Hank Searls, Robert Bausch, Walter Satterthwait, Jerome Doolittle, Tony Fennelly, Lawrence Shames, Don Pendleton, Lawrence Block, Richard Wheeler and yours truly have taken advantage of the program.

The Authors Guild reports that in 2007 alone they sold 46,844 formerly out-of-print titles, accounting for $566,382 in sales and earning authors $99,530 in royalties...or, as I look at it, found money.

I have three out-of-print titles that have been available through the program since 2002. The royalties have steadily dwindled over time. In 2006, I earned $406.24. In 2007, I earned $179.65. So far in 2008, I've earned $69.32. Not a lot of cash but it's better than nothing...and best of all, I don't have to work for it.

The Mail I Get - Cringe-Inducing Edition

I got an email today from an author who wanted to convince me that her POD novel was terrific and that I should read it. She wrote:

My book XYZ won a Reviewers Choice in Affaire de Coeur, five wonderful reviews on Amazon and I've developed a smallish but loyal following who want my next books as soon as it comes out.

I cringed when I read that. It's bad enough when an aspiring writer makes the mistake of going to a POD vanity press or having their book published by an amateur POD pseudo-press run by a barely literate, self-published author. But when you promote your book by touting your "five wonderful reviews on Amazon" you only make yourself look like a fool. Those reviews are meaningless.

Don't get me wrong, they are nice to have, flattering to you personally, and might sway a browsing customer to buy your book. I am grateful for every positive review that I get from readers on Amazon and other online bookselling sites.

But never, ever, EVER use those reader reviews as a selling point to an agent, editor, or reviewer or they will run screaming away from you and write you off forever as a wanna-be. Nobody in the publishing business cares about five positive reviews on Amazon. Nobody. Getting a 150 positive reviews might attract some attention but even then what really counts are actual sales.

And what, exactly, is a "smallish but loyal following?" Ten people? Fifty? A hundred? Your Mom and her friends around the pool at the retirement home? Again, it's sales that count, and moving a few dozen books still isn't going to attract much attention. Nor will a couple of hundred. But a thousand sales will get you noticed. That's something you can tout...if you can back up the claim.

UPDATE 7-29-08: The author of the email is published by Light Sword Publishing, which is co-owned by the advertising director of Affaire De Coeur. So if all this author has to tout her book is a review from the magazine and "five wonderful reviews" on Amazon (one of which was from *another* Light Sword author), she'd be better off letting her book speak for itself.

S & S E-Grab

The Authors Guild has sent out an important advisory to its members:

Simon & Schuster has recently sent a one-page letter to many, perhaps thousands, of authors with unspecified e-book royalty rates in an attempt to set those rates at 15% of the "catalog retail price" of the e-book. (This is the typical e-book royalty rate for S&S.) As with any amendment to a book contract, the Authors Guild advises caution:

1. Discuss the amendment with your agent or attorney, if you have one.

2. Depending on your existing contract with Simon & Schuster, the amendment may grant the publisher rights that you've otherwise retained.

3. Be aware that the amendment may affect your ability to obtain a reversion of rights.

In any negotiation regarding e-book royalty rates, we suggest that you keep your powder dry: try to retain the right to renegotiate e-book royalty rates. The Authors Guild expects that 15% of the retail list price will be the low-water mark for e-book royalties. As the e-book market develops, authors with clout will doubtlessly insist on a more reasonable share of e-book revenues, and the industry will have to adapt. One glance at Amazon.com's home page, which has for months been ceaselessly promoting its Kindle e-book reader, indicates that day may be near. For more on Amazon and e-books, see this July 4th article from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Describing Sex Isn't Easy

Here's how one of my favorite authors described passionate love-making in a recent novel:

"He carried her to the bed. It was like two tornadoes competing for the same trailer park. When they were done, he lay on his back with his head over the edge of the bed breathing hard and looking out the curtained window to the upside-down Pacific."

I laughed when I read it. I think it was meant to be funny...wasn't it?

Defend the Defenders

Dawn O'Bryan-Lamb has established the Author Advocate Defense Fund  to help the bloggers, web sites, and organizations being sued by literary agent Barbara Bauer:

"On September 20, 2007, Barbara Bauer filed suit in New Jersey against a list of defendants, ranging from the Wikipedia Foundation, to message board owners, to bloggers.

More information about the precipitating events can be found in the archives of Making Light. There is additional information about the case regarding Wikipedia at the Electronic Frontier Foundation site. 

 Another defendant is Science Fiction Writers of America for its Writer Beware "thumbs down agencies" or "Twenty Worst" list. Yet another is the former and current owner of  Absolute Write which has a thread about the Plaintiff on their site. 

Defending oneself against a lawsuit is expensive, and many of the author advocates being sued could use help to pay the many legal costs involved, which are adding up over these past 9 months.

I've set up a PayPal site where you can donate to help these writers with their legal fees. Any amount is welcome. Any fees assessed by PayPal will be covered, so your full donation goes to the legal defense fund. All funds will be disbursed directly to the defendant's attorneys in equal shares."

It's a good cause. I urge you to make a donation.

UPDATE 7-4-08 : Score one for the good guys. Bauer's lawsuit against Wikipedia has been thrown out by the court. The Ashbury Park Press reports:

Judge Jamie S. Perri dismissed complaints by Barbara Bauer and her company, Barbara Bauer Literary Agency Inc., against Wikimedia Foundation, the owner and operator of online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

Bauer in court papers alleged that Wikimedia Foundation defamed her by publishing numerous false statements, including one that said she was "The Dumbest of the 20 Worst" literary agents and that she had "no documented sales at all."

Perri cited the Communications Decency Act, enacted by Congress in 1996 to promote free speech over the Internet. The act immunizes a provider of interactive computer services from liability for publishing content provided by another.

This judgment dealt only with Wikipedia, not the cases brought against the 19 other defendants.

This and That

My wife and daughter are in France for a month, so I'm all alone at home...unless you count my daughter's dog, the hamster and the fish. I feel like a zoo keeper...my life has become BORN FREE in a tract home. But the solitude has given me the chance to catch up on some books and movies, when I'm not cleaning backyards, cages and fish tanks...

 OSS 117: LE CAIRE NID D'ESPIONS

This French spy spoof is everything GET SMART wanted to be and AUSTIN POWERS should have been. It perfectly mimics the look, feel, sound, fashion and acting style of the 1960s spy films down to the smallest, lovingly crafted detail. And on top of that, it's hilariously funny, too.

  IN BRUGES

This a bloody, dark comedy about two hit men who are sent by their boss to chill out in Bruges, Belgium after an assignment goes bad. I loved everything about this film which, in terms of tone and violence, is sort of a cross between PULP FICTION, JACKIE BROWN and SEXY BEAST. I don't understand why this movie didn't generate some attention...it's seemed to open and close in a weekend here in L.A.. It's a shame, because this may be one of the best movies I've seen all year.

WANTED

Sure, the stunts and effects are cool, but this movie left me cold. I just never got into the characters or the story. I found myself glancing at my watch, biding my time until the next stunt. It badly wants to be THE MATRIX or BOURNE IDENTITY, but to me it felt like I was watching a video game instead of an actual movie.

SERAPHIM FALLS

A post-Civil War western starring Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson, both of whom were totally miscast. Not that it mattered. It's a strange cross between OUTLAW JOSEY WALES, JEREMIAH JOHNSON, and RAMBO, and not a fraction as entertaining or fresh as those movies. Brosnan plays a former Union soldier (who apparently has Navy SEAL survival training) relentlessly pursued through snow-capped mountains and parched deserts by vengeance-seeking former Rebel soldier Neeson. Neither man is a villain or a hero which is, of course, the point of the movie, which is driven home with the subtlety of a wrecking ball. The movie seems tired, familiar, and pointless.

THE GARGOYLE

This isn't a movie, but rather one of the hot galleys from BookExpo. It's by first-time author Andrew Davidson and it's a breath-taking, though problematic, debut. The story falls into what is becoming something of a genre unto itself:  the "wounded man finds redemption and love with the woman who nurses him back to health" and who endures his agony by escaping into a fantasy world of imagination and flashbacks. The story, as a result, shares some similarities to THE ENGLISH PATIENT, THE SINGING DETECTIVE and THE WATERDANCE, to name a few. Despite some familiar motifs, this is a brilliant, compelling, and darkly funny novel...at least for the first two-thirds. It's about a coked-up porno actor who is in a terrible car accident that nearly burns him alive. It's in the burn ward that he meets a woman who is either a schizophrenic or his lover from several past lives. To say more would ruin things. I was enthralled for the first two thirds of the book, as much by the story as the prose. Davidson is a master storyteller, and I don't say that lightly. I can't believe this is his first novel. The writing and structure evokes John Irving, Robertson Davies, and Susanna Clarke...with several "side trips" that could stand alone as mini-novellas (something Irving has done in several of his books by having his "author" characters share their stories or by using extended, anecdotal flashbacks). The book fumbles in the finale third, with an extended dream sequence and a limp, pointlessly drawn out conclusion that doesn't satisfy on any level. It doesn't matter. That small disappointment is more than outweighed by the brilliance of what precedes it. The characters, images and stories in this amazing book will stay with you long after you've finished reading. I strongly recommend it.

Conquering Horse

Yesterday I treated myself to Frederick Manfred's CONQUERING HORSE, a wonderful novel told entirely from the point-of-view of a young Sioux experiencing various rights-of-passage before leading his tribe of Yanktons. The book is beautifully written and remarkably detailed -- either Manfred did an extraordinary amount of research or he had a particularly vivid imagination. I suspect that it's equal parts of both.

Manfred, who also wrote as Feike Feikema, is probably best known among western readers for LORD GRIZZLY and RIDERS OF JUDGEMENT, and writers like Larry McMurtry (who adapted RIDERS for a mini-series some years back) consider him influential in their work. Over the years, I've collected signed copies of all of Manfred's books -- most of them first editions -- and even have some signed & annotated volumes from his personal library (like the complete works of Edgar Alan Poe). Manfred died in 1994, so I ration myself to one or two of his books each year. (I know that's silly, but I do the same thing with John D. MacDonald and some other writers). It's a shame that most of his books have fallen out-of-print.

Forgotten Favorites

A lot of crime writing bloggers lately have been talking about some of their favorite forgotten, out-of-print, or overlooked mystery novels and thrillers. Here are a few of mine, off the top of my head...

THE EIGER SANCTION by Trevanian
SHIBUMI by Trevanian
UNDER COVER OF DAYLIGHT James W. Hall
FLETCH by Gregory MacDonald
THE DA DA CAPER by Ross H. Spencer
DARK RIDE by Kent Harrington
THE ROPE DANCER by Victor Marchetti
THE ONES YOU DO by Daniel Woodrell
UNDER THE BRIGHT LIGHTS by Daniel Woodrell
HE DIED WITH HIS EYES OPEN by Derek Raymond
The WYATT novels by Garry Disher
TEARS OF AUTUMN by Charles McGarry
STILL AMONG THE LIVING by Zachary Klein
THE INNOCENTS by Richard Barre
The CARNEY WILDE books by Bart Spicer
The SAINT novels by Leslie Charteris
The SHELL SCOTT novels by Richard S. Prather
The early MATT HELM books by Donald Hamilton
TIDEWATER BLOOD by William Hoffman
BUTCHER'S BOY by Thomas Perry
THE FIRST DEADLY SIN by Lawrence Sanders
THE NEW CENTURIONS by Joseph Wambaugh
IN LA LA LAND WE TRUST by Robert Campbell (as well as his other Whistler novels)
THE RED CORVETTE by Robert Sims Reid
THE OWL by Bob Forward
THE DETECTIVE by Roderick Thorp
A WHITE MERC WITH FINS by James Hawes

I am sure that I've left out dozens and dozens of other books... and I've intentionally excluded Harry Whittington and Charles Willeford. If I went through the boxes of paperbacks in my garage, I'm sure I could add a lot of other titles/names to this list.

Read the Movie

Duane Swierczynski's SEVERANCE PACKAGE reads like a novelization of a screenplay based on a video game. A group of people are called into the office on a Saturday...and then told by their boss that the company they work for is shutting down, that they are locked in the building (which is boobytrapped with sarin gas, bombs, etc), and that they are all going to be executed...unless they choose to drink a poison cocktail instead.

It's a high concept idea that ultimately has no substance beyond that. It never really pays off in terms of character or plot...instead, what we get is one violent fight sequence after another which would play much better on screen than it does on the page. On paper, it's monotonous rather than thrilling. All the fights tend to blend into one another after a while, even though Duane keeps dialing up the gore in an effort to keep our attention. Overall, the book reads like a martial arts/espionage twist on the familiar FRIDAY THE 13th/HALLOWEEN slasher movie formula...with a bunch of victims up against an unstoppable, almost superhuman, killer.

It's obvious that that Duane is a wonderfully imaginative, highly skilled writer...but, in my opinion, he's skating on flash here...he's taking the easy way and not using his considerable talent to its full potential. He could be writing great books...noir classics...but instead he's going for gimmicks, in-jokes, and fights. It's as if in every scene he's trying to impress his friends ("hey, look at this guys, it's gonna be cool!") instead of trying to create interesting, believable characters and tell a compelling story. It's a shame that he's devoting his efforts to superficial splatter-fests when he's clearly capable of writing something with real substance and staying power.

SEVERANCE PACKAGE would have worked much better as a comicbook...which it, essentially, is (the cover and the artwork that's interspersed throughout the book make that comparison inevitable) or a screenplay, which it probably will become (if it hasn't already). And yet, as hip and edgy as the book wants to be, there's actually a really dated feel to it all...like you're reading the novelization of the fifth sequel to BALLISTIC: ECKS VS. SEVER. Haven't we seen the super sexy, invincible, gun-toting martial arts babe a thousand times now?

As I said when he wrote the far superior THE WHEELMAN...he's got a great book in him, but this isn't it. SEVERANCE PACKAGE reflects all the weaknesses of THE WHEELMAN and few of its many strengths.

Better Late Than Never

A reader alerted me to this review of my book .357 VIGILANTE from Johnny La Rue's Crane Shot blog:

"It's straightforward and clean without subtext, symbolism or suspense. Some of the dialogue could easily come out of David Hasselhoff's mouth, it's puerile enough. The book's also a bit long at 214 pages. But it's a good, brisk read with plenty of action and pop culture references to make it a slicked-up, dumbed-down PG-13 version of the Executioner"

I'm always amazed when people discover the .357 VIGILANTE books, since they were obscure even when they were published nearly 25 years ago...

Devil May Care

...but the reader won't. DEVIL MAY CARE is billed as a new 007 novel by Sebastian Faulks "writing as Ian Fleming." But he's not. He's writing as Richard Maibaum, the Bond screenwriter, only not as well. This feels like a limp effort to rip-off GOLDFINGER...the movie, not the book...and it fails on just about every level. This isn't a bad book, it's not just a very good one. It's literary cool whip and, as an adventure-thriller, not nearly as satisfying as even the weakest book by Barry Eisler (the RAIN series) or Lee Child (the REACHER series). It feels as if Faulks, the brilliant author of the amazing BIRDSONG, dashed this off in a weekend, making it up as he went along. Here's an example of the prose:

Bond lit a cigarette. It was pointless to argue with M when he had one of these bees in his bonnet. "Is there anything else I need to know about Dr. Gorner?"

Bees in his bonnet? Not only is that a cliche, it's not something I would I would expect Bond to say...Miss Marple maybe, but 007?

DEVIL MAY CARE is filled with references -- direct, indirect, figurative, and pastiche -- to previous Bond novels and films, characters and situations. Most of all, he tries to evoke FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE and GOLDFINGER, practically lifting scenes and characters from those tales and rewriting them in new locales. It doesn't work and only makes you realize how much better those books -- and movies -- were than this thin and unimaginative novel.

Faulks' own creations are familiar and, at the same time, preposterous. The mwa-ha-ha bad guy is a pale imitation of DR. NO...with a simian hand. Yeah, you read right, one of his hands is exactly like an ape's. And he has a sidekick that's yet another variation of Oddjob and, dare I say it, Jaws.

The biggest problem with the book -- beyond the thin writing and familiar scenario -- is the depiction of Bond himself, who comes across slow-witted and strangely chaste...and not the least bit dangerous. He may have "cruel eyes," but that's all that's nasty about him. He knocks out bad guys instead of killing them (when doing so puts his own life in jeopardy) and refuses to bed women who offer themselves to him. Ho-hum. Even worse, he makes one dumb move after another... and the reader will be way, way ahead of Bond when it comes to the "twists" in the book, which are so loudly telegraphed that they might as well be emblazoned across the cover.

All in all, DEVIL MAY CARE is a weak tie-in and a poor continuation of the literary franchise. I expected much, much more from an author of Faulks' talents.

UPDATE: I just read an interview with Faulks where he says he purposely wrote the book in six weeks to mirror Fleming's own work-pace. It reads like he wrote it faster than that. By comparison, I wrote most of my DIAGNOSIS MURDER and MONK books in eight week to 12 weeks, often while also writing and producing a TV show or movie, to meet rigid publisher deadlines. My brother Tod wrote his BURN NOTICE tie-in in eight weeks and, though I am obviously biased, it is a hell of a lot better than DEVIL MAY CARE.

Hell of a Good Book

For book lovers, the pleasure and discovery of browsing through a bookstore's shelves can never be replaced or replicated by visiting an online site.

A couple of months ago, I was browsing through an independent bookstore in Mendocino, California and happened upon HELL AT THE BREECH by Tom Franklin, which was published in 2003 and yet was still stocked on the shelves as a new title. Imagine a chain bookstore holding on to a title that long. I doubt I ever would have discovered the book otherwise.

I finally got around to reading HELL AT THE BREECH in two long, blissful sittings this week, finishing it at 2:30 this morning, invigorated and wishing the book wasn't finished. The experience was like re-uniting with an old lover. The pleasure of reading this fine novel brought back memories of all the hours I'd spent reading good books in my life....huddled in my sleeping bag in a cabin at Loon Lake, sitting on the boardwalk in Capitola, sunbathing on a chaise lounge at my grandfather's place in Palm Springs, lying in the bathtub with my head propped on a wet towel, laying in a hammock with my baby daughter asleep on my chest etc.... and all the associations that came with them, like the smell of suntan lotion, the fresh-caught trout in Nana's smoker, the soap bubbles in the bathtub, the baby lotion on my daughter's skin. A good book can do a lot more than simply entertain and pass the time.

HELL AT THE BREECH is one of those books. It's a wonderfully entertaining book, the best western I've read since LONESOME DOVE, though far be it for any of the critics who raved about it....and there were many...to concede it's a western. The closest anyone came was to refer to it as "historical fiction."

The book is full of vividly drawn, complex characters...violence, humor, and powerful imagery.  There are many moving scenes and darkly funny moments...and many masterful descriptions of people, places, expressions and emotions.  I often found myself re-reading passages just to experience the beautifully-evoked images and moments again...and to marvel at Franklin's prose, wishing I had his talent. It's a book that will make you eager to read another book to recapture that pleasure...and, if you are like me, it will inspire you to write.

My Weekend Reading

I took a little literary vacation last week, taking a breather from my own writing to read the work of others. I read John Hart's DOWN RIVER (which won the Edgar for Best Novel) and Michael Chabon's YIDDISH POLICEMAN'S UNION (which was nominated for the Edgar).

DOWN RIVER was a fine book, and I enjoyed it, but I didn't find the twists all that surprising and cringed every time the hero, Adam Chase, asked someone to "cut to the chase," which was way too often. Even so, it was an interesting and entertaining read...it felt like a literary take on a typical Gold Medal paperback story.

THE YIDDISH POLICEMAN'S UNION was wonderful, wildly inventive, and a pure pleasure to read. It's a police procedural set in an alternate reality in which the atomic bomb was dropped on Berlin, Marilyn Monroe married JFK, and tens of thousands of Jews settled in Alaska while pining for a homeland of their own in Israel.  The story is about a troubled homicide detective (naturally) whose investigation into the murder of a junkie peels back the complex layers of society among the refugee Jews of Sitka. Chabon does an amazing job making his alternative history believable and creating a fully realized world without showing the strain. It's the most refreshingly original, funny, and compelling mystery I have read in years. I loved every page of it and was sorry when it ended.

Davis Wins SFWA Presidency

International Association of Media Tie-in Writers member Russell Davis won the Presidency of the Science Fiction Writers of America in a landslide victory. This is very good news...and gives him the mandate he needs to make a lot of over-due changes.

No Romance for Plagiarist And Her Publisher

The Charlotte Observer reports that Penguin/Putnam has dropped romance author Cassie Edwards due to, and this is a phrase I have never heard before, "irreconcilable editorial differences." The differences have to do with Edwards' lifting text from other people's books and claiming it as her own, a practice brought to light in meticulous detail by the blog Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Novels.

In a phone interview in January, the author told The Associated Press that she indeed "takes" material from other works, but said she didn't know she was supposed to credit her sources. She then asked her husband to get on the phone. Charles Edwards said the author got only "ideas" from other books and did not "lift passages."

You Can't Tell a Book By It's Cover

SLEEPING DOGS by Ed Gorman proves the old adage that you can't tell a book by it's cover. He has been stuck with the ugliest St. Martin's cover since my book, BEYOND THE BEYOND. It's a damn shame, because his book deserves more thoughtful packaging-- a LOT more. It's a biting, fast-moving, darkly funny mystery set inside a Senatorial campaign. The hero is Dev Conrad, a political consultant who knows how to play the game and is growing increasingly uncomfortable with the lies, hypocrisy, and self-delusion inherent in his job.

Ed not only gives us an inside look at the dark side of campaigning, he also offers a good puzzle, too, where the "bad guys" are fully fleshed-out characters who aren't that much different than the "good guys." And after countless books about tortured cops, PIs and forensic scientists...not to mention an endless number of amateur sleuths...Dev Conrad is a fresh, unconventional protagonist. The timing for this book couldn't be better...but, based on the cover treatment, I fear the publisher isn't in a position to take advantage of the opportunity.

As an aside, I am awed by Ed's versatility...he writes westerns, whodunits, thrillers, procedurals and now political novels...all with equal skill. I wish I was that flexible.

Statistics Everywhere

There were lots of interesting statistics in Publishers Weekly today relating to retailing and Print-On-Demand.

According to a Bowker study, the Mystery Genre is what Americans read most, accounting for 17% of all books sold. Science Fiction accounts for 5.5%, General Fiction snags 3%, and Horror scares up 2%.  The same study also found that chain bookstores account for 33% of booksales while the Internet sells 21%.

A study by the Association of American Publishers found that total industry sales rose 3.2% in 2007 to $25 billion. The largest gain is among adult hardcovers, which are up 7.8%. The "largest overall gains in the year came from the smallest segments." They note that ebook sales jumped 23.6% and audio books rose 19.8%.

PW editor Sara Nelson notes in her column that Amazon accounts for slightly more than 10% of online sales. She doesn't seem  particularly worried about the company strongarming POD presses to use Booksurge, their POD service. She observes that big publishers use POD "only sparingly," that there remain many other venues of POD sales, and that lawyers she has contacted don't see the grounds for an anti-trust suit.

And in a news brief, Lightning Source has partnered with On Demand Books, the company that makes the Espresso Book Machine that prints novels for readers on the spot. So far, there are a grand total of seven machines in operation...not exactly a major force in book retailing.

Bookbuying by the Numbers

Publishers Weekly reports today that online booksellers account for 30.5% of book sales, chain book stores 32.5%, discount stores (like Wal-Mart and Costco) 13.5%, independant booksellers 8.7% , grocery stores 3.7% and author/publisher websites 1.8%.  The article states that combined internet sales (32.3%) could overtake big chain bookstore sales soon...but it seems to me that they still have a ways to go to eclipse the share claimed overall by brick-and-mortar sales (which now account for 67.7% of sales).

Projected Share of Consumer Book Purchase in 2008 (source Publisher's Weekly, Fairfield Research, Greyhound Books)

Online bookstores: 30.5%

Chain bookstores: 32.5%

Discount Stores: 13.5%

Used Sales and Stores: 9.3%

Independent bookstores: 8.7%

Grocery/Spec/Newsstands 3.7%

Author/Publisher/Web: 1.8%

RESOLUTION

I read an ARC of Robert B. Parker's RESOLUTION and I really enjoyed it....but less so than APPALOOSA, which  is the best Parker book since DOUBLE PLAY. Parker's books are so short and so similar, and feel so much like contemporary westerns anyway (particularly the Spenser novel POTSHOT and all the Jesse Stones), that I felt like I'd read it before. Actually, RESOLUTION feels more like a sequel to STRANGER IN PARADISE, the latest Jesse Stone, than it does to APPALOOSA. Lawman-for-hire Virgil Cole is essentially Jesse Stone, right down to the philandering wife/girlfriend he can't let go of, but somehow it plays a lot better in the wild west than it does in present-day Massachusetts. The book, which comes out in June, left the door wide open for a sequel and I'm looking forward to it.

Book Lust

I went a little crazy at the Paperback Collectors Show & Sale today...the books were so cheap and the selection was huge. My buying binge included a bunch of Ashley Carter (aka Harry Whittington) books as well as:
TRAIL OF A TRAMP by Nick Quarry (Marvin Albert)
NICE GUYS FINISH DEAD by Albert Conroy (Marvin Albert)
THE ROAD'S END by Albert Conroy
COCOTTE by Theodore Pratt
TROPICAL DISTURBANCE by Theodore Pratt
GET SMART! By William Johnston
THE MOONLIGHT WAR by Clifton Adams
THE GRABHORN BOUNTY by Clifton Adams
LAST DAYS OF WOLF GARNETT by Clifton Adams
DESIRE IN THE DUST by Harry Whittington
CALL ME KILLER by Harry Whittington
JOURNEY INTO TERROR by Peter Rabe
CORNERED by James McKimmey
CASE OF THE PETTICOAT MURDER, CASE OF THE BEAUTIFUL BODY, CASE OF THE BRAZEN BEAUTY, MORGUE FOR VENUS, and COME NIGHT, COME EVIL by Jonathan Craig (based on Bill Crider's enthusiastic blog posts about the author recently)
TRAGO by Frank Bonham
EYE OF THE HUNTER by Frank Bonham
KISS HER GOODBYE y Wade Miller
GOAT ISLAND by William Fuller
I LIKE'EM TOUGH by Curt Cannon (aka Ed McBain)
NO SCORE by Chip Harrison (Lawrence Block)
STRONGARM by Dan J. Marlowe
DEATH DEEP DOWN by Dan J. Marlowe
13 FRENCH STREET by Gil Brewer
ASSIGNMENT CARLOTTA CORTEZ by Edward S. Aarons (who, I discovered today, wrote some TV tie-ins based on THE DEFENDERS).

I think, all told, I spent about $70. A perfect day.

Outside the Comfort Zone

My brother Tod writes today about the fun he's having writing the BURN NOTICE books...and what he's learning about himself as a writer along the way:

I must say that writing this sort of comic noir is pretty damn fun to do. I've got two more to write after this one, each with a substantially longer deadline, thank god, and I've really had to teach myself that I don't need to have an unreliable narrator facing some sort of mortal pain in every line, like many of my stories and novels previously have had, and that it's okay to just have fun, line by line, day by day, writing for the entertainment of it all. I've been asked by a lot of people why I decided to do these books and my answer has been the same each time: It seemed like it would be pretty cool. It seemed like I'd reach about 50,000 more readers than I usually do. It seemed like a great way to learn, again, how to write something completely out of my comfort zone, to challenge myself in new and interesting ways.

I knew he'd like it. It will be interesting to see how he feels a year from now after he's written two of these books and is well into his third.

Tod asked me the other day how I kept up the pace.  That's when I realized that I've written 17 novels since 2003, 15 of which have been published, one that's coming in July, and one that I'm in the midst of now.

I didn't really have answer for him. I like to write, for one thing. And I live in fear...writing is how I pay the bills and if I am not writing, I start worrying about ending up boiling hamburgers at McDonalds while my wife sells her body on Sunset.

That's not to say I don't feel the pressure, but lately it has eased up a bit. Since I dropped the DIAGNOSIS MURDER books, I'm not writing a new book every 90 days any more...and, at the moment, I'm not running a TV series or jetting back and forth to Europe every two weeks either. So writing this latest book hasn't been quite the same kind of juggling act, though I am certainly feeling my deadline approaching in eight weeks.

And I am eager to write something which, as Tod says, takes me outside of my comfort zone.

"The Past Tense" novel in the DIAGNOSIS MURDER series was like that -- I set the book in the 1960s (I'd never written anything that was "present day") and wrote Mark Sloan from first-person instead of third person.  It was scary and tough and I was certain I would fail. But it turned out to be the best-reviewed book in the series and one of the few times a paperback original TV tie-in got noticed in the mainstream press. I'm very proud of it. I also tried a little narrative-trick in the DIAGNOSIS MURDER novel "The Double Life" that was scary, and I like to think that I pulled it off. Whether I did or not, it gave me a thrill just trying it and powered me through whatever exhaustion I was feeling at the time.

The first MONK was also a challenge for me -- writing in first person from a woman's point-of-view. It worked, too. But now I have done that for seven books and am comfortable with it. I need to shake myself up again. I don't know what that new writing challenge will be, but hopefully 2008 will be the year I take it on.

The PW Variation

Mark Sarvas,  who runs the excellent L.A.-centric lit-blog The Elegant Variation, has his first novel HARRY, REVISED coming out in May and it has earned a glowing review from Publishers Weekly, which can't help commenting:

[...] though there may be legions of writers spurned by his blog just willing Sarvas to fail, this is a self-assured, comic and satisfying story.

It will be interesting to see how the Los Angeles Times reviews his book.

Finding Religion

The MWA anthology BLUE RELIGION, edited by Michael Connelly, scored a rave review from Publisher's Weekly:

The Mystery Writers of America presents a high-quality anthology of 19 original stories that explore a wide range of police experiences, from newcomer Polly Nelson's superb tale set in 1864 Kansas, "Burying Mr. Henry," to editor Connelly's powerful and grim Harry Bosch investigation into a young disabled boy's death, "Father's Day." The sordid mean streets, depicted in Persia Walker's "Such a Lucky, Pretty Girl," are nicely balanced with the lighter touches of Jon Breen's "Serial Killer," a darkly comic tale in which two police detectives recount one of their cases to a community college writing class. TV writer Paul Guyot contributes one of the volume's strongest selections, "What a Wonderful World," about a cop's obsessive search for the killer of a hot dog vendor. This is one of those rare themed anthologies that can be enjoyed at one sitting.

I was chairperson of the MWA committee that selected half of the stories for the book, so I'm very happy about the review. And I am doubly pleased to see my friend Paul Guyot's story singled out for praise.

Authors Always Get Screwed

The Los Angeles Times reports today about how CHEETAH GIRLS novelist Deborah Gregory got screwed by Disney. Hollywood cheating novelists isn't a new story, but the timing of this one, on the same day the strike ends, underscores why screenwriters need the Writers Guild of America:

Gregory expected to get a piece of the action when she signed a 2001 contract promising her 4% of the net from all of this activity. But like many other authors who have signed away dramatic rights, she says she never got a penny of the profits. Unlike screenwriters, who were backed by a strong union in their recently ended strike, most literary writers are at a disadvantage when negotiating with Hollywood. And it is difficult, if not impossible, for them to crack the safe.

Indeed, Gregory said she's pocketed $125,000 over the last nine years in option fees and payments for her title as co-producer of the movies. Although she's asked for them, she has never gotten "net profit participation statements" from Disney, spelling out details of expenses and revenues. If anyone is getting rich on this formidable franchise, Gregory noted, it's not the woman who created it.

[...]The stakes are high because 43% of Hollywood movies in the last five years were adapted from books and other written materials, according to estimates by the Writers Guild of America. What makes Gregory's case unusual is that she didn't simply write a book, she wrote bestsellers that led to a movie and marketing bonanza.

The article says she got $180,000 in advances for her 16 CHEETAH GIRLS novels, which have sold 2 million copies. What the article doesn't say is whether she earned out and, if so, how much she has made in royalties thanks to the huge marketing push behind the movies, DVDs and CDs. Even so, whatever that figure is, it doesn't come close to the financial bonanza that she ought to be sharing in as the creator of the franchise.