The Elements of Mystery Fiction: Writing the Modern Whodunit

by Tapply, William G.

  Initially, we wanted to get out-of-print first books in a series back into print plus publish the occasional reference work.

  We soon learned that a small press hasn’t got the marketing muscle or the distribution to print and sell mass markets, so we rethought our position and elected to move into trade paperbacks with higher price points.

  Our next realization was that Big Publishing was focusing more and more on Big Books and ignoring the smaller mystery, which includes the traditional detective story. And as soon as we had some titles in print we started getting query letters from authors asking if we would consider original manuscripts.

  In time, original publishing took over our program. We formed an Editorial Review Committee composed of some twenty volunteer readers. We require that all submissions be in electronic format. First the query letter, then, upon invitation, the first thirty pages, which go to members of the ER Committee. Those submissions that survive the first screening go in full manuscript to a second round of readers, and those that survive that process go to me; I make nearly all the final publishing decisions. We are thus well set up to work with unagented authors. An author should ask a press for its submission guidelines, not just fire off a manuscript.

  We filled a hole, given the practices of the publishing conglomerates that dominate the industry these days. The success of “small” houses such as ours has spawned a booming small-press industry. Most specialize in a single genre, but some embrace a wide range.

  We can define a trade publisher, which is what we are mostly talking about here, as having, at a minimum, these characteristics:

  1. Provides editorial services by a professional staff.

  2. Does not accept money from authors for publishing their books or engage in copublishing ventures.

  3. Has a published discount schedule/terms to the trade.

  4. Sells at least 90% of its books as fully returnable or makes its inventory available through a wholesaler or distributor.

  5. Has at least two authors on its list, and is not related to a majority of its authors.

  6. Provides some kind of marketing/sales services.

  Q: What are book editors and publishers looking for nowadays?

  A: There are several parts to the acquisitions process. It isn’t just about what editors like, it’s about what sells and how to sell it, plus costs for acquisition, design, production, and marketing. Some books are just too expensive to publish. Some may be too risky, legally or financially. Some may just have to enter an overcrowded field.

  Editors get most excited by books they love, but sometimes they are forced to honor contracts made by someone else, or accept a book from an author whose body of work they publish even if they don’t care for the current entry, or buy a book to fill a slot. In an ideal world, you fall in love with a book for its voice. It’s just like meeting someone at a party and starting a conversation—it’s how you react to the person’s style and what he has to say.

  I have a five-point scale: setting, characterizations, plot, concept or content, and the quality of the writing. Of these, plot is the least important as it’s the most easily fixed. You cannot teach writers to be interesting, but you can teach them story structure. Actually, you can’t always do that. I’ve bitten on a few books where I loved the way the author wrote or the concept of the book but could not get a story delivered. Is that the editor’s fault or the author’s? Hard to say. If the second book proves as difficult to extract as the first, if the author doesn’t grow, then no matter how painful, I move on. No writer should assume that selling that first book guarantees a career.

  Tips on submission: Master your tools. Spellcheck like mad (and don’t confuse discrete with discreet or fall for other homonyms). Check your grammar (there is a difference between lie and lay, between less and few, between between and among, as well a need for the proper use of pronouns and verb tenses). Ascertain the house style or use The Chicago Manual of Style, and be consistent throughout the book. Do not use the dash as a substitute for proper punctuation. It clutters up the page, and it doesn’t suit a lot of books such as historicals. Do not give your characters names that sound alike and thus can be confused. In short, don’t waste my time with remedial stuff. Editors are there to read your story, not teach you writing.

  But liking a submission isn’t the whole story. The pressures are different, depending on what size publishing house you are and who owns you. Big houses, owned by media conglomerates and conscious of capitalization and wide distribution channels, are looking for big sellers, though they still gamble on works they like. Many editors have a mandate from above that forces them to consider books based more on salability than on literary merit. In many cases books have come to equal mass entertainment, and some authors actually admit they are writing for the lowest common denominator to achiece the largest possible sales. Celebrities help drive bestsellers; the star system and agents have come to play dominant roles in New York. Can an author get TV or other media space? Is there a hook for the book?

  Everyone wants to publish “what will sell.” This can mean tagging on to whatever’s “hot”—we’ve all noticed that a success will spawn any number of imitators and that some news item or social trend will result in a raft of books.

  The point is, forget what’s selling, what’s hot. By the time you can write your book, the world will have changed. Go for your own vision. Be bold. Be creative. It’s better to be a leader than a clone.

  When I opened The Poisoned Pen bookstore at the end of the 1980s, the received wisdom was that only mysteries by women were selling. Art didn’t sell. Series were god. Africa as a setting was death. Books had a certain look which many houses modified from time to time in a process called “refreshing the covers.” All of these “truths” have shifted. Series are great for establishing identity, but publishers today: 1. do not want multiple book contracts, two or three being the norm; 2. want more flexibility to sell books to TV/films without giving up a series character; 3. are so impressed with the success of a few major authors writing “standalone” (also called “breakout”) books, that it’s today’s publishing paradigm. Is it a fad or a long-term plan? No one knows.

  Series cut two ways. Some can continue to grow their audiences, some level out. A lot depends on the series concept and how well the author succeeds in refreshing it. John Sandford, for instance, has improved the Prey series each book and kept it dynamic. Some others (I name no names) either started with an idea that was bound to run out of steam or characters that couldn’t grow, or encountered other limiting factors such as the “Cabot’s Cove syndrome.” Many authors grow restive trying to produce long-running series that can’t accommodate plot ideas, restrict location, and feel like a straitjacket.

  What are your choices? Write a standalone book. Start a new series. Adopt a pen name. This is a difficult area for publishers of all sizes to deal with. You want your marketing to plant the hook that promises a future book for fans, but you don’t want to get locked in. If you are a small press, can you pick up a series that’s been dropped and run with it? I’ve gone both ways, rejecting some, accepting others. There is no absolute rule, especially as you can’t always control the backlist when it’s published by someone else, which can be crucial to an author’s future success.

  Small presses tend to focus on books significant to their mission, that are original or well written rather than likely to be bestsellers, and can experiment more with books they like because their overheads are not as punishing. We have made at least one publishing decision based on how much we could afford to lose rather than on how much we expected to make. Luckily, it turned out to earn a modest profit.

  A trap we try to avoid is taking on hobby books, books that successful authors like but can’t get their ordinary publisher to print. Another publishing pitfall is coming into a series late in the game when the chances of its survival have already been diminished. It’s a judgment call, and it’s easy to get blinded by your fondness for a work (or
an author) to the publisher’s overall detriment. Like any business, the first object has to be survival. So small presses do have many of the same constraints as large operations that affect their publishing decisions.

  Another factor is what is called “balancing the list.” You can’t afford to do a raft of similar books lest you get stereotyped and turn away your core audience.

  Small publishers do want to concentrate on their genre, whatever it is, but they don’t want to get locked into a subgenre unless that is their actual focus. It’s important for a successful small publishing plan to have a mission statement that directs its acquisition decisions and helps implement its marketing strategies.

  Marketing. There’s a topic. If the movies are all about distribution, so is today’s publishing. Let’s face it: For the most part a small press’ marketing strategy is going to be to publish the best books it can and depend upon good reviews and favorable word-of-mouth to get its books noticed, since advertising is prohibitively expensive. It also means its authors have to shoulder a lot of the promotional work. How much energy and money they can expend will make all the difference to how widely their book sells. So a savvy small publisher looks for a creative and committed author, one who, if he or she can’t travel to promote, at least has good Internet skills and/or strong personal contacts.

  Authors should befriend local booksellers—preferably independents, but use them all. Drop in at libraries wherever you can. Libraries are the bedrock upon which Poisoned Pen Press depends for its initial orders for each new publication. If your book has a very specific focus such as a hobby or a profession or a retail specialty, consider marketing your book in nontraditional outlets such as a kennel club or a needlework shop or an antiques fair.

  The savvy author will set up a website, which should contain these basics: a short biography and author photo; a list of all publications sorted by series and in chronological order; any reviews or quotes alongside each title, which can also be made to stand out with a copy of the cover and a brief plot description; and a schedule of appearances and events where the author will be accessible. Buy-my-book buttons should link to the publisher, to booksense.com, or to any independent bookstore that can do mail order. In short, a biography, a bibliography, and an events schedule. You can also capture a mailing list by asking visitors to the website to sign up by email and zip code, and then you can send invitations linked to appearances and mail out periodic announcements or even a regular newsletter.

  Luckily there are many tools available to authors at little or no cost, such as email, list-serves like DorothyL, and e-groups (variations of list-serves) like Murder Must Advertise and Independent Mystery Publishers. There are online resources such as ClueLass.com or The Historical Mystery Appreciation Society. Joining the Mystery Writers of America or, if appropriate, the Canadian Crime Writers Association or Britain’s Crime Writers Association opens up opportunities and knowledge. Sisters-in-Crime and the Private Eye Writers of America also provide support for authors and collegial exchange. Try those as entry points and follow the tips and suggestions and links they provide.

  Individual signings can be organized with some publisher support, but the author should take the initiative to feel out the community and set up events. Regional mystery conferences or Bouchercon, the annual large convention, are a great way to get noticed. Many writers conferences also provide opportunities to get work noticed and rub elbows with fellow writers, agents, and editors.

  Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of big publishing houses versus small ones? What about online publishing, on-demand publishing, self-publishing?

  A: In big houses, editors read manuscripts and make buying decisions. Copyeditors help prepare the manuscript and verify facts and conform style. There are design teams, art teams, publicity plans, marketing departments, sales departments with catalogues and reps. It’s a giant committee. Acquiring editors may find the biggest job they have is selling the book in house, that is, getting the rest of the team behind the book.

  A big house has the money to support a project in ways a small press can’t, although there is no guarantee that much—if any—promotion will actually be done. This can be affected by the contract, and the author and agent should consider negotiating for promotion as part of any deal. Big houses can offer big advances, freeing some authors to write full-time. Big houses can get the author TV and other media appearances, pay for advertising, send out advanced review copies, set up author tours, pay co-op advertising to retailers. And more.

  Small presses can sometimes offer more individualized attention, co-opt the author into marketing, and invite the author into cover design. A savvy small press can sometimes attract more review attention for its authors.

  The real distinction, however, is that books that are published by a regular publisher of whatever size go through an editorial process. Several pairs of eyes look at the book. No matter how fine the sieve, how careful the author, error creeps in. Self-editing is risky. The author is not always the best judge of his own work. Also, retailers are more likely to accept “product” that comes through a publishing process rather than through self-publishing or cooperative ventures. Readers have greater confidence in a publishing imprint they recognize.

  As a bookseller, I don’t have time to screen the masses of co- or self-published material that comes my way. I add books to our inventory and set up events based on reading review copies. All online promotions, referrals to websites, or promotional letters fail with me, since they don’t tell me what I want to know: Does the book have an end as good as the beginning? Does it deliver on its promise? Is there too much middle? What about production values?

  I am not going to invite my customers to read weak books.

  Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of being published in hardcover as opposed to a paperback original?

  A: Hardcover books are more suitable for review. More likely to be considered for review. More likely for library purchase. In mystery, they appeal to the collector market. The higher price point may result in higher earnings and higher royalties, although overall sales really determine the royalties an author receives. There’s longevity, too. Hardcovers have longer shelf life. Hardcovers may have more appeal for a larger house for a paperback or other subrights deal.

  Q: How much do editors and others in the publishing house deal directly with writers? Or is the agent usually the go-between?

  A: In big publishing today, virtually every author who gets a contract is represented by an agent. Very few editors will even read an unagented work, in part because it’s a huge timesaver if the agent has done the first screening. The business parts go easier. And it’s pleasanter. It’s difficult to critique or reject an author’s work face to face.

  Small presses can and often do review unagented work. I do it all the time since the only opinion that matters to me about publishing a book is my own. I don’t have to sell it in-house, either. And while agents can have helped an author shape a book, sometimes they throw up problems if I want to make suggestions or changes. Our contracts are limited to two-book deals and don’t demand enormous review. And authors may prefer not to pay 10% or 15% to an agent.

  Getting an agent is a decision very much related to the level of publishing the author is targeting. If your sights are set on New York, better find one.

  Q: Please explain all the stuff the publishers do that, from the writer’s point of view, happens behind the scenes.

  A: This is a list from Rob, who is the publisher of Poisoned Pen Press:

  Evaluate manuscripts

  Select those we are interested in publishing

  Negotiate a contract to publish

  Get basic book information (author, title, ISBN, binding, price) to Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Bowker, Amazon, and other sales or informational outlets

  Edit the manuscript for publication (sometimes called copyediting)

  Design the book, have the edited manuscript typeset

  Com
e up with cover concept (in our case, by working with the author, but that is not usual)

  Choose an illustrator for the cover or acquire suitable photographs (with permissions)

  Get author photo and biography

  Send the book out for blurbs

  Create jacket copy and promo materials including sell-sheet and press release

  Update Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Bowker, Amazon, etc. with cover art, cover copy, author bio, etc.

  Get printing quotes and do pricing

  Create ARCs, send one to author to proofread

  Send out ARC and press release to pre-pub reviewers, sales reps, and a few select booksellers

  Send out ARC to a few select readers who hopefully will begin to get a buzz going on the Internet and elsewhere

  Send out sell-sheets and press release to bookstores and to sales reps, prepare seasonal catalogues and other sales tools

  Get author’s proofed ARC to final proofreader/copy editor