Crime Fiction Dossier

Book of the Week: Joseph Wambaugh's "Hollywood Crows"

Joseph Wambaugh's darkly comic cops of the LAPD return to action in Hollywood Crows, a sequel to 2006's outstanding Hollywood Station. Even though he's been off the job for years, Wambaugh still has strong contacts in law enforcement, and his works maintains the air of authenticity that has always made it so good. This time his featured officers are working for the Community Relations Office (thus CROws) and get involved in a wife's conspiracy to rid herself of an unwanted husband. Hollywood Station was a great book; Hollywood Crows is less so. The characters don't seem as vibrant this time out and there's even less story to hold onto. But most Wambaugh is still worth recommending, and this one is, too. It's great to have him writing fiction again, even when the work is less than his best.

Barry Eisler's advice for aspiring writers

We've been talking a lot recently about writing (and how to write better), so I dug through the archives to retrieve some material to share.

Back when I used to do a lot of author interviews, I'd always ask the interviewee if they had any advice for aspiring writers. The following is one of the best responses I received, from bestselling author Barry Eisler. This is from July 2005. -DJM

• Keep writing. Can't emphasize this one enough. Every day is ideal, but the goal is to just be as regular as you can. Same as learning a language, or a martial art, etc.
• Reread passages from books you love and ask yourself, what is the author doing here that's working so well? And if you see something that you think is bad, ask yourself, why is this bad? What could the author have done differently to make it work?
• Read books on writing. Stephen King's On Writing helped me a lot. David Morrell's Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing is also terrific. There are many others. But don't read the how-to books at the expense of your own writing. Whenever you have to choose, practice your writing instead.
• If you've got time and you're serious, a writer's workshop can be a huge help with motivation, feedback, and discipline. Google "Writer's workshops" and the name of your city and you'll probably be able to find a bunch.
• When you think your book is as good as you can possibly get it, it's time to try to find an agent. The way to do this is to go a library or bookstore and get a book like The Writer's Digest Guide to Literary Agents. Identify the ones that handle your kind of book and contact them in exactly the manner they request.
• One of your best friends as a writer is what I think of as the "what if" question. "What if someone cloned dinosaurs and planned to open a dinosaur theme park on a remote island?" (Jurassic Park) "What if a semi-yuppie drug dealer were about to do a seven year prison stretch?" (The 25th Hour) Etc. If the what-if question interests you enough, it'll lead you to other questions, all of the who, what, where, when, why, how variety. Follow those questions and you'll start to find your story.

A lot of people think that, in the writing business, it's not what you know, but who. This has not been my experience. Who you know might get an agent to take a look at something you've written, but after that you will stand or fall entirely on the quality of your writing and other business calculations.

In other words, the best a mutual acquaintance can do is possibly get your work moved closer to the top of the agent's pile. But this is a minimal benefit, because agents read everything that's submitted to them anyway. That's their business. It may take the agent a while, but eventually he or she will read what you've sent.

What makes a great book a great book?

In the post below ("Write a great book"), Doug Riddle asks the question:

So what makes a great book a great book?

Obviously there is a huge subjective component to this. On the other hand, you seldom hear people say that that Shakespeare guy really sucked, or that Raymond Chandler was a hack.

(Naturally, you can find someone who'll say it, but by consensus if nothing else, there are some objective standards of quality. Otherwise, my daughter's scribbling would be on the Times bestseller list.)

In simple terms, I think a great book has what Paul Guyot calls "the combo plate." (I love that term because it makes me think of Mexican food. And I love Mexican food.)

The combo plate means the book has a great story told through great prose. You'll find a lot of good books that have one or the other, but when you put the two together, that's when you approach greatness.

Some combination of the components that make a great book, if not all of them, will be present: interesting, multi-faceted characters; a dynamite protagonist; a worthy antagonist (if there is one); a plot that draws you in; an original story (or, at least, an original take on a familiar story) that holds your interest throughout the book; a compelling authorial voice; rich conflict; dialogue that sparkles; evocative descriptions; a setting that comes alive...

What do you think? You know a great book when you read it -- so what makes it great?

Write a great book

It's become something of a writers blog cliché to discuss marketing and promotion, and how to spread word of mouth, and how to get reviewed, and myriad other topics... And then we end with, "Oh, and write a great book." Yes, I'm guilty of it, too.

This has been coming up a lot in my post giving "Advice to unpublished writers" so I thought we should discuss it further.

Shouldn't this be the advice that we lead with? Shouldn't this be the one thing that is first and foremost in all our thoughts and all our advice?

You want to get an agent? Write a great book.
You want to get published? Write a great book.
You want to get reviewed? Write a great book.
You want to sell a lot of copies? Write a great book.

Okay, it's a little monotonous. But it's also true. The single most important thing a writer can do to give him/herself the best chance at success is write a great book. That trumps everything else.

So how does one write a great book? Dunno. (If there were an easy answer to that question, do you think I'd be writing this blog? No. I'd be on my private island sipping gin and tonics.)

There's no one piece of advice anyone can give that will teach you to write a great book. At the same time, I do think we can learn to improve our craft. Writers like Stephen King, David Morrell and Gayle Lynds help with their books and workshops. But it's hard work to learn -- and it's even harder to teach. (And, truth be told, it's not something I think most of us understand very well. I know I don't.)

One piece of advice that I will pass along was stated in the comments to the thread below by author Phil Hawley:

I've always felt that you should write a novel only if you carry inside a story that is aching to get out.

That is so right. It has to be something burning inside you, some story you have to tell; the kind of thing that keeps you awake at night because you can't stop thinking about it. A lot of books, I think, are written simply because the author wanted to (or had to) write a book. There wasn't any passion there. Now, some writers may be able to get away with that, but if the rest of us try it, I think we're in trouble.

Once you've got that killer story, you have to work your ass off to make it as good as you can; honing the prose, refining the characters, tightening the plot. And you can't stop until it's the absolute best that you can make it. Just "good enough" isn't...well, good enough.

There's no secret, no trick, no shortcut. Just hard work. I am convinced, however, that in the end it will all pay off.

Advice for unpublished writers

Much of what I write on this blog is directed at published writers; thoughts on reviews, promotion, publishing, etc. Today I want to pass along some advice for unpublished writers that I think is very important. I'll warn you up-front that this is not advice that a lot of people want to hear. But I'm going to share it anyway.

Everyone who contemplates writing a novel dreams of publication. That's why we do it in the first place. Nobody wants to write something just to stick it in a drawer. So when the first glimmer of success comes along, we jump at the bait like the hungriest fish in the pond.

An agent wants to rep me? Great! Let's do business. A publisher wants my book? Wonderful! Where do I sign?

We don't stop to ask the hard questions. Is this the right agent for me? Is this an agent that can get things done? Is this an agent who shares the same vision for my book and my career that I do? We're just so happy that an agent -- any agent -- is willing to take us on, that we leap before we look.

Same thing with publishers. We don't question if this is the right deal to launch our careers, if this is a publisher who believes in the book and will give it the support it deserves. We don't ask about print runs or marketing support. We're so desperate to get published that we'll take the deal, any deal, just to see our book in print.

And that's a mistake. Because you only get one chance to be a first-time novelist -- and that, quite possibly, is the best, most important chance you'll ever have as a writer.

In a recent interview at Murderati, Neil Nyren, Publisher and Editor in Chief of Putnam, made the following statement:

First novelists have no black marks against them, no large returns or tiny sales, so anything is theoretically possible. But if an author has published four books to static or declining results, there’s no way to hide it, and it’s very hard to convince an account not to order accordingly.

What does that mean? It means you're in a stronger position as a brand-new author than as one who's had a couple of novels poorly published. (And let's be honest -- far too many novels these days are poorly published. I'd even go so far as to say that this happens to more books than not.)

In a discussion I had recently with one of the top literary agents in the business, I was told:

The first deal for a new author is vital. Can be career defining. It’s the only time a publisher signs a deal without any sales figures to go on.

Or as another A-list agent put it:

You need to go out with something unstoppable as your first published novel. You need to be published well, not just published.

Go to any writers conference and wander around the halls and you'll see authors whose books you remember from a few years back and you'll think, "Huh, there's so-and-so...I haven't seen a book from him in a long time. I wonder what happened." Chances are that so-and-so is still writing -- he just can't get a contract because his first two-book deal didn't earn out and no publisher is willing to touch him. Did this person suddenly forget how to write? No. But the industry is no longer interested because they can't sell his books.

As unpublished writers, we need to think long and hard about our prospective careers and decide what exactly we want out of them. If the goal is simply to be published, then the decision is much easier. Find a reputable agent who's at least reasonably enthusiastic about the project and hope she can sell it. Anywhere. Then sit back and enjoy the pleasure of seeing your book in print. You might not ever sell another, might not make a dime off it, but you'll always be a published author, and that's nothing to sneeze at.

On the other hand, if you're in this for the long haul; if you're looking for the type of long-term success that builds book after book, that keeps you in print, that ensures you can earn enough money from writing to actually live on...Well, then the decisions are much harder, and can sometimes be much more painful to make.

Not only do you have to write a book that a publisher will buy, you have to write a book that a publisher will sell. A 3000 copy print run from a second-tier publisher probably won't accomplish your goals. Even a top-tier publisher who is willing, but not enthusiastic, is unlikely to do what needs to be done.

You need a smart agent with lots of connections; a savvy editor with clout; a publisher that's committed to distributing, marketing and selling your book. And most of all, you need a great book that can generate the enthusiasm necessary to make the whole thing happen.

Sometimes we just have to face the hard, hard truth that this isn't the right book at the right time. This isn't the right representation or the right publisher; not the right deal. We have to face the painful reality that it's time to stick the manuscript in the drawer and go back to square one. It's time to start all over again.

Because there is something worse than being an aspiring writer with a novel that was never published. It's being an aspiring writer with a novel that was published -- and it ended your career before it even began.

Book of the Week: Libby Fischer Hellmann's "Easy Innocence"

Libby Fischer Hellmann, author of the Ellie Foreman series (which I reviewed positively in years past), launches a new lead character in her latest mystery. Georgia Davis is a Chicago PI hired to prove the innocence of a mentally challenged man who has been accused of murdering a teenage girl. Easy Innocence is not as suspenseful as it could be (mostly because it reveals a key plot twist before the story even starts) and the motivation of its villains is questionable. But Davis is an engaging character, and Hellmann does a nice job with the book's clique of teenage girls, so the book rises above those limitations. Easy Innocence shows promise for Georgia Davis. Hopefully we'll see her again soon.

Speaking of promotion: James Patterson

ABC News has a piece on James Patterson that I found interesting. It contains some eye-opening stats -- he's sold 150 million books; an incredible 1 out of every 35 books sold last year was one of his -- along with the usual stuff about co-writers, his marketing background, etc.

Here's a quote from Patterson that I loved:

"There are thousands of people around the country who don't like what I do," he said. "Fortunately, there are millions who like it a lot."

Most of the time when Patterson's name comes up in conversation with other writers, he's referred to with derision.

I always shake my head when I hear people make those kinds of statements, because I think they just don't get it. We should be learning from what Patterson is doing. We should be studying his methods and strategies, and figuring out how we can apply his lessons to our own work.

I don't care if people think the books are lousy -- many of them are not very good, but so what? That's not the point. What matters is that he's selling books. And that's something we all need to learn to do better.

(hat tip)

Thoughts on promotion

I know that not everyone reads the comments section, so I wanted to pull out these remarks I left on the post below regarding book trailers. I'm responding to two prior comments in the thread.

JD Rhoades wrote: "What it all boils down to, I fear, is that none of us really know what works."

Alex Sokoloff wrote: "The thing is, it ALL works, to one degree or another."

Those two statements go right to the heart of this discussion, I think. When it comes to marketing books, most things you try will work to one degree or another -- but what's nearly impossible is learning what degree that is.

That's why I urge authors to think long and hard, and to gather as much information as they can, before they commit to spending their time or money on promotional activities.

Someone will tell you, "You have to spend $5k on a book trailer" while someone else will say, "You've got to spend an hour every day blogging" or "You've got to visit every bookstore within a thousand miles" -- but as Dusty points out, we don't actually know if any of those things will work.

So I think it's important to question the "received wisdom" that gets bandied about so much in the publishing community. Not because a particular strategy does or doesn't work -- but because we don't usually have the evidence necessary to assess them. And thus a healthy dose of skepticism is in order.

Authors need to try to figure out what works best for them, given their personality, their skills, the amount of free time they have, their available resources, the nature of their book, the amount of support they're getting from their publisher, etc. They can't just write a check and hope for the best.

Ask the Critic: Book trailers -- yea or nay?

A reader wrote in yesterday to ask my opinion of book trailers. I answered that I don't think very much of them. In my opinion, they're not terribly effective and probably a waste of money. (Although, if they can be produced cheaply, they probably won't hurt.)

When pressed for an explanation of why I think they don't work, I shared the following reasons (off the top of my head):

• Most book trailers are amateurish.
• They appear to be advertising something other than a book (e.g., a movie) and are thus confusing to the consumer.
• Most of the audience is unfamiliar with or unaware of book trailers, and thus their impact is minimal.
• Most readers don't seem to like them very much. I've never heard readers talk about them and never seen them generate word of mouth.
• They're a form of "push marketing" and thus have to be combined with additional forms of marketing in order to be effective -- but most authors don't use them that way. They post the trailer on their website and on YouTube and that's it. But how is the prospective audience supposed to find them?

I do think book trailers can be somewhat effective when used as part of a larger marketing campaign -- the kind of thing done for bestselling and other high profile authors. But for most writers, especially midlist and debut writers, I believe they're better off spending their (very limited) promotional dollars elsewhere.

But what do you think? Do you like book trailers? Do you ever watch them? Have you ever bought a book based on one?

Novelists Strike Fails To Affect Nation Whatsoever

As reported in The Onion, the current strike by the Novelists Guild of America "has had no impact on the nation at all." The strike, which has "brought an immediate halt to all new novels, novellas, and novelettes from coast to coast" has reportedly "affect[ed] no one."

The article goes on to note:

A report published last week by the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication found that the strike has thus far had an economic impact of approximately 0.00 to 0.01 percent. In addition, consumer habits remain unaffected, with 0 percent of those polled saying their reading habits had changed "significantly," 0 percent saying they had changed "somewhat," and an additional 0 saying they had changed "slightly." A significant number of respondents reported no reading habits.

Tough times, my friends...I have been on strike since June of 2006, but so far the impact has sadly been minimal.