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Photograph © Cheryl Rinzler
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Why would one of America’s most distinguished literary publishers jump at the chance to sign up an unknown hillbilly-noir writer whose history so far consists of gritty short stories published online by pulp fiction e-zines?
Here’s why: Mystery and crime fiction is booming – there are more debut authors, more acquisitions by editors, higher sales and greater dominance on the bestseller lists.
Twitter yields a new writer
“I discovered Frank Bill on Twitter,” literary agent Stacia Decker of the Donald Maas Agency said the other day about her new writer whose rural Indiana-based crime stories have an enthusiastic following online. “I recently placed him in a two-book deal with Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.”
The contract, signed with FSG editor Sean McDonald, is for an upcoming collection of short fiction and Bill’s debut novel Donnybrook, which a blurb says “…hits as hard as an axe handle to the side of the head after you’ve snorted a nose full of battery acid and eaten a live rattlesnake for breakfast.” Wow. The folks at FSG — also Scott Turow’s publisher – know how to pick winners. Dozens of authors on their roster have won Nobel Prizes for Literature, Pulitzers and National Book Awards.
Terrific news for mystery writers of all stripes
Top literary agents in mysteries confirm an upsurge in the genre. “I started in 2009 and my business has only increased-with sales evenly split between hardcover and paperback,” Decker said. She’s one of most successful agents for mystery books over the past 12 months, according to Publisher’s Marketplace.
Acquiring book editors agree. “Mystery publishing at Thomas Dunne Books is thriving,” says Associate Editor Toni Plummer, who’s the #1 dealmaker on PM’s list for signing up mysteries. “We’re serving a huge community of mystery readers.” Terri Bischoff, the acquiring editor for Midnight Ink Books, says the mystery business is so good, they’re expanding.
The New York Times bestseller list confirms all this. Of the top ten books on the hardcover fiction list last week, five were mysteries. And last week’s Nielsen’s BookScan reports that for bestsellers in all categories or formats, eight of the top ten were mysteries. BookScan also reports that unit sales for mysteries were greater than for titles in romance, science fiction, and action adventure.
The Big Surge
I’ve been seeing many more mystery proposals and draft manuscripts lately myself. Writers are requesting consultations about their core concept (“Are the characters original? Will the story fly? What should I change about the literary style before starting to write the manuscript itself?”)
Or they may seek a page-by-page developmental edit to “make sure I’m sending out the very best book I can write, with characters you love and hate and a story you can’t put down.”
They’re also asking “How can I create a series with an ongoing continuing hero or heroine that I can sell to an agent or publisher?”
Scroll down for my tips on getting your mystery published
I never saw this kind of boom when I was the official “Mystery Editor” at the Macmillan Company in the 1960’s. We depended primarily on libraries to buy thousands of copies of everything we published. I was getting bored with the formula English imports we issued like clock work, one per month. So I dreamed up a new series that was more contemporary and timely back then, starring a tough guy black detective hero called Shaft. Remember him? Here’s how I put that deal together. But in those days, mysteries were largely predictable and sales more pedestrian.
So, why the big upswing today in activity by mystery writers, agents, and publishers? Here are some of the reasons.
Readers get hooked on series!
The modern successors to Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple — including Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, the Liz Tucker series by Janet Evanovich, and Michael Conelly’s Harry Bosch, not to mention Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy — all have irresistible heroes or heroines. Once an author has two or three titles going and the character begins to grow and cut loose, fans devour every new title. It’s addictive. A successful series is the dream of every mystery writer, agent, and publisher.
Mystery readers cross gender lines
Jessica Faust, the eminent book biz blogger and CEO of BookEnds Literary Agency says unequivocally that “The reason mysteries sell better than romances or science fiction is they cross gender. That is, women will read tough action books with outlaw heroes, and men will read cozies for the warm relationships and sense of community.” Faust recently sold three books to Berkley Prime Crime in the all-new Charmed Pie Shoppe Mystery series by Ellery Adams and two more untitled books in the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series by Jean McKinlay.
Bischoff at Midnight Ink also reports “Before coming on board as an editor, I owned a mystery bookstore and can tell you that men read cozies but even more women read thrillers.”
Mysteries are satisfying
Mysteries solve problems. My old pal Bruce Harris, the former VP of Sales at Random House, thinks people love to read mysteries for the satisfying payback. “They’re so much fun to read because they answer questions, make order out of chaos, and create clarity out of confusion.” He’s right. A heinous crime is committed. The heroine or hero leads us on a logical process that figures it out, gets beneath the surface and discovers the truth about this puzzle.
Mysteries series as stealth memoirs
For writers, mysteries are a great way to create a series heroine or hero by writing your own idealized fantasy memoir. Take what you know best, the reality of your life, the relationships good and bad, your work, profession, travel, naïve hopes and terrible losses, the changes you’ve been through, the ups and downs, and tell the story with the main character who’s actually you! Artfully disguised of course. Suppose in real life, if you are sexually an active person, bring that trait to your character also. You can develop them as someone who enjoys to meet for sex. Try building the plot on that note. Introduce the element of mystery, romance, tragedy, or whatever is that you desire. Build on the narrative that you desire for yourself to unravel.
Generations of successful writers have written their memoirs in the form of mystery series, pouring new wine into old bottles, reflecting the changing world around them. They make themselves and their lives the stuff of idealized, sometimes romantic, other times gritty and self-deprecating, but always evolving self-portraits.
That’s why mystery heroines and heroes have been employees of the Pinkerton Agency: (The Continental OP by Dashiell Hammett) lawyers: (Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow) devoted gardeners: (Pushing Up Daisies by Rosemary Harris) or a South Chicago feminist: (Blood Shot by Sara Paretsky).
Don’t we all want to make sense of our experiences, to discover or create a rational outcome, so life doesn’t seem random, accidental and senseless? Mysteries can do that.
Getting your mystery published
As a developmental editor, the problems I see most frequently in mystery manuscripts are with the main character and the plot.
Who’s the main protagonist of your mystery book? You’re not limited to an autobiographical stand-in, but it needs to be someone with whom you’re very familiar, so you can write from inside your head. This person needs a day job or occupation, not necessarily as a detective, but whatever activity you know well and can lead to a criminal deed — usually a murder — that must be punished.
This crucial choice of the hero or heroine sets the narrative voice, literary style, and premise of the story. Not to mention its potential for future titles in a series.
But mysteries are both character and story-driven, so I also focus a great deal on creating a great narrative skeleton, including that big-bang opening crime, a middle act of pursuit and discovery, and ultimately a finale which wraps it all up, crime solved, villainy brought to justice of one kind or another. This blueprint can save you tons of time and rewriting, since you can study it on screen, print it out and put it on the wall, mull it over, move stuff around, add and delete.
Are you a mystery writer?
Is yours a stealth memoir? If not, what helps you get inside the head of your main character? I’ll watch for any questions in your comments.
Just discovered your blog. This post caught my attention. You make several good points that have made me reconsider the mystery genre.
Several years ago I got involved in the MWA and wrote a mystery. What eventually discouraged me from focusing on the genre?
* Like other entertainers, mystery writers seem to fall into three categories:
— SuperStars: The best-seller list regulars, who usually fight to get out of the genre ASAP. They write Thrillers, NOT mysteries.
— The Pros: They’ve known each other for decades and help each other, but they don’t know you.
— Hobbyists: people with day jobs that support a writing hobby.
* I imagine the typical mystery reader to be a retired, female, history teacher. I thought that the mysteries that I wanted to write (noir crime novels) would be of no interest to a broad mystery audience.
* Humorous novels about murder seem something of a contradiction. The author says to the audience “First, I’m going to kill someone, then the FUN will start! Don’t worry the good guys (cops) win in the end. Your world will continue to be nice, cozy, and safe.”
Despite all that, I may place myself in the Hobbyist category and try writing crime fiction for myself.
Alan,
David Carr said to read your post and low and behold your post and the readers contributions supported the posting of my book Land Swap 4 Death just last week on Smashwords – all due to the SF Writers Conference last February. Enjoyed the program (a must do), your bits, and the overall ambiance. Now eight months later I am a published fiction writer – Yes all, just push through it, get a great editor to help tweak it, and voila – there she be. Others underway, by the way I am at a book signing in Chicago this week for my non-fiction re-edition – GI Town, find it on Amazon. Alan, your blog on writing and Joel Friedlanders on book making (the paper kind) and publishing are must for all writers.
Thanks
Greg Randall
Gloria,
It’s OK to mention that you consider this submission to be one of a series and already have two others in the works. I advise against sending or suggesting the agent take on three at once, since the first submission needs to stand on its own until a proven success, then others can follow.
Good luck!
Alan,
Per your advice, I’ll learn to Twit.
During the past 11 years with any time apart from my real job I read, write and edit. What did you mean about a personal life? What is that?
Charlotte,
How to build a character through a series of book is exactly the topic for an upcoming post so stay tuned… And good luck with your first!
Sheila,
A lot of book people spend time on Twitter these days, so it’s a good place to be seen and heard (and maybe discovered.)
As always, the rub is striking that balance between all the online marketing and social networking with the writing itself, not to mention your day job if you have one, and most important, your personal life, which is the ultimate point of all this feverish art and commerce, right? Whew!
Alan, thanks, great encouragement, my 1st novel will be released mid November, The Con (verb and noun). Published by small but emerging publishing house in Tennessee, distributed POD thru B & N, Amazon etc. Not self published. It’s factional, fiction based on fact, fictionalized version of my work, as a psychologist with criminals in Australia. Your piece gives me hope. I am working on #2 but stuck as unsure where to take it. Based on your piece I think I will turn it to a “who done it?” What do you think? I tweet, perhaps I too will be “discovered”. It could happen.
Alan, just wanted to let you know that you’re in my top 5 favorite blogs on publishing. Keep up the great work. My only complaint is I wish that I could read more and more …
An agent discovered a writer on Twitter – OMG. How common is that? Do you think it’s essential for a writer to learn to Twit?
Thanks for a great post, Alan. Very encouraging for me: I’m a crime/mystery writer just finishing up my first in what I hope will become a series about a South African crime reporter who struggles with the boundary between remaining neutral and her tendency to get her hands dirty.
I’d love some tips on how to grow a main character through a series of books, how to keep readers interested in her personal development against the back-drop of the crimes she solves.
Hi Alan,
Thank you so much for this valuable information. I think I need to turn my memoir into more mystery!
Thanks, Alan! That information is very exciting.
Marilyn,
Yes, mystery science fiction books have a huge audience. There are more than 5,000 titles listed in this cross-genre category on Amazon, including the bestselling future noir novel by Philip K. Dick “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, which was made into Ridley Scott’s classic cult film Blade Runner starring Harrison Ford. Check out also “Caves of Steel” by Isaac Asimov, which has the first android detective, and William Gibson’s “Neuromancer” or “Pattern Recognition,” both ground-breaking science fiction mystery books. And I just read Jonathan Lethem’ new book “Chronic City,” which is a very contemporary cross-genre mystery science fiction book.
So your book “Gods in the Machine,” definitely has a future market as a science-fiction mystery.
Thanks, Alan! That’s such encouraging news for an as yet unpublished mystery writer.
My protagonist is me in so many ways only younger, more ambitious and definitely more attractive. I’m on my third in a series, but still want my first one to be published
first. I’m starting to query the second now, but would like to mention that it is the second, and I’m working on my third. Do you think that would hurt or help in getting one of those elusive agents?
Wow! That’s the best news I’ve heard since the Giants won the first game of the World
Series.
My protagonist is my husband. His partner/sleuth is my former daughter-in-law and his girlfriend is
me– only younger and sexier.
Thanks for the Blog.
I’m so excited to read your Blog today! I’ve been rewriting my science fiction novel, GODS IN THE MACHINE, according to your recommendations, and realize that it seems to be taking on some characteristics of the thriller. Do you think a novel that blends science fiction and mystery has a chance of successfully finding an audience?
Thank you so much, Alan! :)
I’m going to print this blog, Tom Robbin’s advice for writers and your response to my comment and post them next to my computer to have at the ready for when I start to feel burdened.
I’ll dive into writing my ideas and see where the rapids take me.
Sandra
What a terrific post! The third in my cozy mystery series comes out in July, and you have given me hope for lots more. Thank you!
Actually, the mystery market is even better than you believe. Right now, one of the hottest genres is urban fantasy. Think the Sookie Stackhouse (TRUE BLOOD) series and Laurell Hamilton’s Anita Blake. All of these novels are driven by a mystery plot, and the fantasy element is in the worldbuilding.
Urban fantasy has every type of mystery from the PI mystery (Jim Butcher’s DRESDEN FILES) to the forensic mystery (Gilman’s HARD MAGIC).
Sandra,
Sounds like you’ve really studied, read, and are certainly familiar with how to make an outline and thinking about “pattern structure.” But since an academic approach isn’t working that well, how about a this: Start writing. Lean more into the stealth memoir approach and plunge into the deep end, take the dive.
Note Kathy Waller’s comment where she says her main character is “part me and part the person I would like to be”.
Forget all the other advice, relax, and start careening down the white water of that wild river, like my pal Tom Robbins, who says he never knows where his characters will take him. Speaking of Tom, look here for some of his excellent advice for writers, which you may find very helpful. Scroll down in the piece for his list of tips:
https://alanrinzler.com/2008/08/28/tom-robbins-my-advice-to-writers/
Keep writing and don’t stop until you have something to edit and revise.
Good luck!
Splendid post. Frank Bill is a fantastic and powerful writer and I’m sure his debut novel will have great impact.
Alan,
Thanks for the great and poignant post. This is something of a boost to me right now, and the timing could not have been better.
My character started off simple enough after too many readings and viewings of The Maltese Falcon, and after a very dissatisfied viewing the Wesley Snipes vampire movie Blade. So I started off with a hard-boiled detective template doing the job of investigating, not hunting, the paranormal. After reading an article (the names of who wrote and and the title escape me at the moment) the character started to grow even more. A mystery author had a private detective character who was unsatisfied with his job because he was mostly a photographer following up insurance fraud cases, and not a “real” detective.
This helped shape my character in the same light. The whole reason he wanted to be a private detective was to follow his heroes, Spade and Marlowe, but he couldn’t do that as a modern day private detective. There were no murders, smuggling rings, or femme fatales for real-world detectives, but a man who specialized in investigating the paranormal, where the usual, scientific methods came up short, where a detective had to use his wits and begin thinking like the people he was after, where detectives were good enough and smart enough that while they carried guns, they often didn’t need them was definitely doable.
I gave my character Matt Allen a healthy dose of the hard-boiled template, hero worship for Spade and Marlowe, more than a little nostalgia for the “golden-age” of detectives, and smatterings of myself here and there. Over time, I’ve noticed that he is his own character, and I’m beginning to think the character’s voice is starting to pop up in my life more and more. Now I just need to find some of these delightful agents who are snapping up mysteries.
I’m an aspiring mystery writer, and my main character is part me and part the person I would like to be. She’s allowing me to rebuild my hometown as it was–and wasn’t–when I was growing up.
Thank you for this post. It’s encouraging to know that the genre is in good health and that an agent might one day want to read what I write.
Alan edited my mystery novel “Pearls of Asia,” which is a love story, wrapped inside a murder mystery, which revolves around a popular San Francisco restaurant staffed by ‘gender illusionists.’ A handsome detective falls in love with a beautiful murder suspect who happens to be a transsexual. The investigation leads him down a rabbit hole, where he discovers a lifestyle he never knew existed. Ultimately he risks everything to solve the case and win her love.
Alan’s ideas and guidance took my story to a new level. Just like he mentioned above, my main protagonist wasn’t a carbon copy of me, but Alan suggested taking elements of my personality which made the story more interesting and more fun to write. He also helped me create a completely new character, and now I have the foundation to build a series.
Alan’s insight, expertise, and advice is invaluable. That’s why he’s the best.
Hi Alan,
Thank you for the wonderful post! It is encouraging and informative.
I have several ideas for a cozy mystery series, but am having trouble getting any of them to jell. After spending a lot of time trying to find a main character I’m now leaning toward a stealth memoir yet, oddly enough, even that isn’t falling comfortably into place.
It isn’t that I’m so new to writing that I’ve no concept of what I’m doing, I’ve been writing stories and posting them to an online archive for 8 years and have built up a good following of readers. In the past year I have had three short stories accepted for publication: one in a print magazine, one in an online magazine and one in an anthology. Rather I think part of it is I’m fresh from finishing a two year long writing course and reading blogs and articles on writing. As soon as I start to think about one of my ideas for a book length story I immediately start fretting over if it has all the parts it needs; will I put things in the right places, is there enough tension, does my character grow, what’s her driving motivation (In a mystery, does she need one other than solving the mystery?). Should I outline and plot it all thoroughly first or just write and fix things later – or a combination of the two, etc., etc. I read Larry Brooks and other high structured story advisers and feel lost and overwhelmed in the jargon. I’ve tried the intense outlining approach twice with short stories and both times when it was time to actually write, I’d lost all interest in the stories. It was like I’d already written them and they were no longer fresh and alive to me.
My head is full of what you mention above: “Writers are requesting consultations about their core concept (“Are the characters original? Will the story fly? What should I change about the literary style before starting to write the manuscript itself?”)” and I feel I have no one, other than friends and family, to bounce it off of nor do I have money to pay anyone for it – rather the wrong thing to say to you I suppose. ;-)
I’ve read that mysteries are one of the most pattern structured genres, but I’m having trouble finding the pattern set out anywhere that states it clearly and in a manner that’s easy to follow. Is it different than all the structure patterns I have seen for a basic novel, or is it the same with some additions or subtractions? I’ve read mysteries all my life, they are my favorite genre, but I have trouble reading through a story (even one I’ve already read) and picking up all the aspects of its structure.
All this to end up saying I wish I could find an experienced mystery writer who would mentor me for a short time. I’m convinced that once I have some help to get going (a push start so to speak) that this will all take off and I’ll be fine.
Do you have any suggestions where I could go to find some help that won’t cost hundreds of dollars?
Again, thank you for this blog entry,
Sandra