Crime Fiction Dossier

Literary heroes

Screenwriter Paul Guyot has a new feature on his website that intrigued me. It's a photo gallery of his heroes, drawn from film, literature, music, sports, his personal life and everything else.

Some of the choices are a little odd -- for example, he is obsessed with a horse. And, apparently, people who drive really fast while making left turns. But some of the choices are rather inspiring.

This got me thinking about my own heroes, especially those related to writing and literature. I'm too lazy to put together pictures or anything. But I did start making a list:

Ross Thomas...Roger Ebert...Larry Block...Pauline Kael...Anthony Boucher...Ernest Hemingway...George Pelecanos...John D. MacDonald...Dashiell Hammett...Laura Lippman...Robert Ferrigno...David Morrell...Rex Stout

(This is just off the top of my head -- I know I'm leaving off some great people.)

What about you? Who are your literary heroes?

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.

Favorite (or least favorite) PI novel clichés

I had a conversation with reviewer Cameron Hughes recently where the topic of private eye clichés came up. Cameron was complaining about the use of jazz in PI novels (I'll let him explain his position further, if he wants) and I responded with the alcoholic PI.

To amuse myself, I started making a list of other overused clichés and gimmicks from PI novels. Here's what I came up with. (Note: some of these would also apply to other types of crime novels.)

• The psycho sidekick who does the dirty work so that the hero can keep his hands clean.
• The detective who's a gourmet cook.
• The detective who drives a flashy car. (Would you really try to tail someone in a Ferrari or Shelby Cobra?)
• The detective as social worker -- not only does he solve your case, he heals your soul.
• The detective who's a gimmick instead of a character: he loves Bugs Bunny, he's got OCD, he's a leper, he's a left-handed transsexual, he thinks he's from Mars, etc.
• (I'm using "he" to make it easier, but all of these would apply to female PI's as well.)

Naturally, any of that stuff can still work in the right hands. I like Ken Bruen's books a lot and Jack Taylor is the prototypical boozer. But it's definitely something that I would caution any aspiring PI novel writer to be aware of. (The first rule to using a cliché is knowing that it's a cliché.)

Does these bother you when you come across them in a novel? And what are some of your favorites?

The obligatory "screenwriters on strike are turning to writing novels" article

The L.A. Times has the piece. I'm surprised it took them this long to run it.

The best quote is from Mary Evans, Robert Ferrigno's agent:

"Oftentimes, you shudder when a screenwriter sends you a novel, because they tend to be strong with dialogue but crappy with context, and novels are all about creating the proper context for the story," said Evans, whose clients include [Mark Haskell] Smith and Michael Chabon. "Screenwriters are attracted to novel writing because they can let their freak flag fly and just write what they want, but the truly talented novelist-slash-screenwriter is very rare."

Have any of you read Mark Haskell Smith? From the brief description the article gives, he sounds like someone I might like.

Plots with Guns returns

I'm always out of the loop, so I just heard about this. (Thanks Guyot.) Anthony Neil Smith has announced that Plots with Guns, one of the best publications for short crime fiction, is returning.

I'll be doing quarterly issues.  The pay will be...well, it'll be me buying you your drink of choice the next time I happen to see you.  The standards will be higher than ever, and I'll be pickier than ever. Looking for hard-boiled, noir and transgressive crime fiction.  Every story has to have a gun in it somehow, some way (doesn't have to play a big role.  Just needs to be there).  No pastiche.  It's got to feel right to find a home in PWG.

In 2008, we're starting over with Issue #1.  Send me your best (email only).  You know how to get in touch.  And I promise you this won't be a Ross Perot thing (he's running, he's not, he's running again, he's not).  This time, I'm sticking around for the long haul.

Very welcome news indeed.

Ask the Critic: Writing query letters

Anonymous asks:

I am preparing a query letter in the hopes of getting an agent for a novel I've just completed. I have all sorts of contradictory advice from various Internet sites to sort out. Do you have any advice?

I have thoughts on writing query letters and soliciting agents, but I'm hardly an expert on the subject. So I turned to someone who is: Jeff Kleinman, one of the founders of Folio Literary Management and a top-notch agent. Below, Jeff responds to Anonymous' specific questions.

Q. Should the query letter try to start out with something clever, or just be straightforward and business-like?

A. Either works. There isn't a right or wrong answer with queries. The question really is: what letter opening will most grab the agent's attention? Obviously that may depend on the agent. But starting off too cleverly may be off-putting. I think a simple "here's how I heard about you," and then having some targeted info about the agent (books she's represented, etc.) is often best.

Q. Should the query include the page count?

A. The query should include word count, not page count. And word count should be rounded up or down: so not "92,193 words" - saying "about 92,000 words" is fine.

Q. Should the writer compare themselves to other writers? (For example, "my work is like Tess Gerritsen's" or whatever.)

A. REALLY depends on the other writer. If it's a bestselling, brand-name author (Stephen King, Dean Koontz, etc.), probably not. If it's a breakout first novelist, maybe, depending on if the comparison's really accurate. An easier way of doing it is to write "My book will appeal to readers who like Tess Gerritsen's."

Q. Should the writer let the agent know they have sought him out exclusively, or should they send the letter out to many agents?

A. DEFINITELY let the agent know it's exclusive - agents assume it's nonexclusive unless they're told otherwise, or unless they ask to see the materials exclusively.

If you've got a question for Ask the Critic, please send it in.

Thoughts on self-publishing from M.J. Rose

Linda L. Richard recently interviewed author M.J. Rose for January Magazine. It's a fascinating interview, and I wanted to highlight one segment of it. (For those who aren't familiar with M.J. Rose, she's one of the smartest people in this business, an expert on marketing and the publishing industry in general. She's also a fine thriller writer.)
 

Q. Your first book, Lip Service, was self-published. It was an amazing job. It was beautiful, well-edited, really professional from cover to cover. A lot of people are interested in self-publishing. Is the path you took one that you’d recommend?

A. No. Not for fiction, no.

It was a different time in 1998. There weren’t many self published books at the time, and now there are over 100,000 a year. Plus I didn’t do it as a career move. I never intended to stay self-published. It was an experiment.

I did it because my agent had real interest in the novel but everyone kept telling her there was no way to market my kind of fiction. Since my background is in advertising, I told her I was going to self-publish a few copies, and market them online and then she could show the publishers how to market my kind of fiction. I had no doubt I could figure out how to market the book.

That’s a very different reason to do what I did than so many people now who do it now.

Q. In what way?

 A. So many self published authors tell me they’ve self published after being rejected by one or two agents and/or one or two publishers who have criticized the quality of their work. Said it wasn’t well written, or original or needed more work. Those are the last writers who should be self publishing. When I ask them how they know their books are ready to be published, they say because their friends love their work, or their family.

I think no one who can’t get a quality agent should publish on their own. Agents are always looking for new authors and I believe if the book can’t interest an agent, the author would be better served working on his or her craft for a while longer. I had written three horrible novels before I got an agent with a fourth novel. And then Lip Service was my fifth.

My advice hasn’t changed for the last eight years. Self-publishing fiction is a last step. It’s only an option when you’ve tried the traditional route and rewritten the book a dozen times.

I say this because even wonderful writers published with top houses can’t break out. So much is published now and book marketing is so difficult. How much hope is there really for an average or less than quality book that's got no support behind it? Stores don’t want to give the self published books a chance, most reviewers don't want to to either. It’s not an uphill climb anymore: it’s a Mt. Everest climb times 100,000.

You won't get any better advice than that. Rose has been there and she understands the realities of the publishing industry today better than almost anyone else. For more of her thoughts, read her excellent blog.