Mysterious Matters: Mystery Publishing Demystified

Step into a World

This has been a pretty good week for manuscripts and queries.  Some quite interesting things have come my way, which is always exciting.

I've written in the past about those qualities that turn me off to a manuscript, but I've been giving some thought to the things that turn me on.  Of course, good writing, good characters, and a strong plot must be taken as a given.  Beyond that, what grabs my attention?

1. Stepping into a world.  I like a book that creates and sustains a world.  Each genre has a sort of metafictional world of its own, and mystery lends itself to many different world types, from the cozy village to the hardboiled world of the Big City.  I like to be enmeshed in that world from the first paragraph of the book.  I think this may be part of the reason that job or hobby-based mysteries are so successful--the reader is taken into the world of, say, the antiques dealer, the Civil War reconstructionist, the professional ballet dancer, and so forth.  The ironic thing, of course, is that most antiques dealers probably wouldn't say their lives are more exciting than those of the average person, nor would the average ballerina.  The creation of those worlds makes them seem more glamorous, more exciting, more mysterious than they probably are. (For example, how much excitement can ballerinas experience when they are practicing 12 hours a day, eating sparsely, and exhausted at the end of the day?) 

2. Feeling a sense of unease.  My heart always starts to race a little bit when I am confronted by something peculiar on the first page of a manuscript.  I don't mean something disturbing, perverted, or psychotic, but rather a scene where something very unexpected is happening.  Take this first line from The Listening Walls, by Margaret Millar:  "From her resting place in the broom closet Consuela could hear the two American ladies in 404 arguing."  Huh?  Exactly.  Why, exactly, is Consuela resting in the broom closet of a hotel?  We've all been to hotels, all seen the same things, but Millar arrests our attention immediately with something that obviously can go on in a hotel but that none of us ever think of.

3. Setting sail on a raging river.  A mystery/suspense novel is nothing without an exciting plot that grabs your attention and doesn't let go.  A first chapter that has us off and running, with action happening immediately--and no backstory to drag down the pace--makes me want to keep reading, to sail that raging river all the way to its end.  Ponderous thoughts and philosophizing don't grab my interest on page one, though certainly it's a good idea for the lead to have some deeper thoughts somewhere in the book.

 4. Wondering what the hell just happened. So, I've just read Chapter 1, and the protagonist has done something that makes no sense.  Maybe she's just planted a bomb in her daughter's car, or he's traded his wife's acetaminophen for ibuprofen.  Why would any mother want to blow up her own daughter?  What difference does it make whether the wife takes Tylenol or Advil?  If I'm asking questions like this in frustration, it means the manuscript has hooked me.  I don't always need to know what's going on--in fact, I love to be confused.  Note, though, that I want to be confused by the brilliance of the plot, not by a writer who hasn't done a good enough job of establishing place, setting, or character.

5. Feeling as though I have been tricked.  Any writer who can fool me has my respect, and that goes a long way in buying a manuscript.   Sometimes I see what the writer is doing.  "Aha!" I think.  "Look at how cleverly the writer is not mentioning an important detail.  So, she thinks she can get away with making me think the character is walking a dog when she is actually walking a cat.  She has obviously called attention to that obelisk looming in the distance for some reason that will become clear, but how on earth did that English village end up with an obelisk?"  I'm good at seeing tricks, but that doesn't mean I don't love them.  The best mystery writers are tricksters of the highest order.  I love it when the tricks work--and I love them even more when they work on me. 

6. Wanting to cheat.  I'm from a traditional school that believes that reading ahead to the last chapter of a book is a cardinal sin.  But if you've driven me mad with the desire to know, and I am tempted to peek at the end because I can't take the suspense any longer...congratulations.  You will most likely have a contract in your hands sometime soon.

Forum: Book Reviewing on the Web

Recently the very sad buzz has been the L.A. Times' decision to suspend publication of its Book Review section.   Apparently, a few book reviews will now be interspersed in the "Calendar" section, but the last thing I heard, the book review section is as good as dead.  A lot of people are understandably upset about the decision, including my Californians who see the book review as an antidote to L.A./Hollywod's reputation as a generally vapid place.

What does this mean for us in the industry?  In general, as I've suggested before, the best reviewing is increasingly being done online, where reviewers are often much more open to receiving books by non-corporate entities.  Some of the reviewing takes place in book review sites, such as Reviewing the Evidence and Armchair Interviews.  Others are book blogs by voracious readers, such as Reviewedbyliz.com. 

Today's forum question (as always, please do not be shy about posting or responding in the "Comments" area below):  What are your favorite online review sites?  Which do you read regularly, and why do you like them?  What do you see as the most valuable services a book blog or review site can provide to readers?   If you are a reviewer or a book blogger, please feel free to recommend your blog or Website.  It would be helpful if you would list the types of books you generally prefer to receive, as well as a link to your FAQ or other relevant information. 

The forum responses are open to all, so I'm hoping that publishers and authors alike will make use of these leads to support online reviewing.  Note:  Permission is granted to reproduce part or all of this posting anywhere that book and/or mystery lovers congregate. 

Best of the Small Press

As any reader of Mysterious Matters knows, I am not only employed by, but also an ardent supporter of, independent publishers and small presses.  Today I'd like to talk about some of my favorite mystery writers published by independent houses.  I'll talk about more writers and books in future posts, as it would be impossible to cover all the terrific writers in just one post.  Herewith five favorites, in alphabetical order.

REED FARREL COLEMAN

Bleak House Books

I have a love-hate relationship with series characters.  The businessman and practical realist in me knows that the best way to pay the bills and sell books is to have a successful series.  The critic in me finds that most series characters fizzle after five or six books.  I also sometimes feel weary of dark, cynical P.I.'s and cops.  But I never tire of Coleman's Moe Praeger, a New York City cop turned detective.  The divorced Praeger has more than his share of secrets, and I have found all of Coleman's books to be intense, well-plotted character studies that never go for the easy ending.  Empty Ever After (pictured at left) may be the last of the series (it's hard to tell, but the hints are there); if it is, I admire Coleman even more for ending things before a terrific character and series had the chance to go stale.

ROBERT FATE

Capital Crimes Press

The titular Baby Shark is Kristin Van Dijk, 1950s pool hustler turned P.I.  Baby Shark's High Plains Redemption (pictured) is the third in the series, which to me just gets better and better.  To me, the series is a glorious homage to pulp fiction, except with better writing, plotting, characters, and dialogue.  Kristin is tough and resourceful, but she's always struck me as real, as opposed to a Tough Sleuth created by an Author for Widespread Appeal.  I also find the details of the time and setting to be rendered almost perfectly.  These books have a cinematic quality to them; you can't read them without picturing how they'd look up on the big screen, with a highly charismatic actress playing Baby Shark herself. 

LAWRENCE LIGHT & MEREDITH ANTHONY

Oceanview Publishing

I'm not a fan of serial killer books, despite the fact that they often sell like hotcakes.  So, for me, any writer who can make me enjoy a serial killer book has accomplished the nearly impossible. I'm not sure how the husband-and-wife team of Light and Anthony write together, but they have found a truly hardboiled, authentic noir voice.  "Hardboiled" isn't just subject matter--it's tone and language as well, and Light and Anthony pull it all off with a stylistic panache.  Ladykiller (pictured at right) is a gloriously uncompromising look at the mean streets of pre-Disneyfied New York City, with terrific characters and a twisting plot. 

ANN PARKER

Poisoned Pen Press

The historical mystery is difficult to execute, as so many of them end up in a category I call "history textbook with a murder thrown in."  Not so with Parker's books, set in the Silver Rush of the 1880s in Leadville, Colorado.  Our heroine is saloonkeeper Inez Stannert, one of the few reasonable people in the violent, alcohol-soaked Old West.  Immensely likable but far from perfect, Inez manages to be an independent woman in a world where women are looked upon as chattel, or merely as sources of pleasure.  Her friendships are deep, and her acquaintanceship wide--plot, atmosphere, characters, and historical detail all manage to come together in these tightly written books.  Iron Ties (at left) is the second in the series that began with Silver Lies.  I can honestly say that Inez is in my Top 5 series characters.

BETTY WEBB

Poisoned Pen Press

Some mystery writers act tough; others truly are tough.  Betty Webb is a writer who could make mincemeat of any rivals in any debate on any topic that she feels strongly about.  Her Arizona-based P.I., Lena Jones, is a survivor of the foster-care system, and all the books in the Desert series (Desert Cut, pictured at right, is the latest) are uncompromising windows into issues of social import, such as polygamy or child abuse.  These books are dark whirlwinds that pick you up in one place and drop you somewhere far away, feeling bruised but wiser.  Of course, Webb also does a tremendous service for the industry in general as the small-press reviewer for Mystery Scene magazine, which makes her accomplishments twofold: She's not only an uncompromising writer, but also a sophisticated reader of our genre.   

Ten Dirty Words

Though we shred all rejected materials, we do keep track of submissions in a database.  This has proven useful to us in a number of ways.  It's especially helpful in terms of jogging our memories and cross-checking to see if any of us have previously seen a writer's work.  We don't keep extensive notes, just author/title, a brief description of the book, and our no-holds-barred thoughts on the manuscript or proposal.

In looking at the database earlier this week, I noticed that we tend to use the same words quite often--and that these words can be packed with meaning.  We usually won't use these words in a rejection letter (we try to be respectful), but these seem to me to be the 10 worst words we can use to describe a manuscript:

1. PRETENTIOUS.  This is the worst of them all.  "Pretentious" means the writer has an unrealistic sense of self and/or the work.  However, there's a big difference between "ambitious but flawed" and pretentious.  The former usually connotes a terrific grand concept that doesn't quite come together.  The latter means "overly, and unjustifiably, impressed with oneself."

2. DERIVATIVE.  At best this means startingly unoriginal; at worst it means "copycat."  We do recognize that writers need to find ways to grab an agent's or editor's attention, and there certainly is a market for books that mimic bestsellers.  However, at the end of the day I believe that orginality always wins out. 

3. SELF-INDULGENT.  A self-indulgent manuscript is one that the author has been unable to edit or revise with an objective eye--a book that indulges the writer's tendency to go on at length without regard to the reader.  Such tendencies can be curbed with practice, and of course established authors can get away with such sins much more easily than aspiring novelists.  A self-indulgent writer signals editors that they care much more about "getting published" than they do about selling books.  And who needs that?

4. SLOW.  There's a lot to be said for a brooding, carefully plotted building of suspense.  But one of the worst sins in a mystery is a plodding plot, one that moves at a snail's pace or takes forever to get started.  We need to be hooked in the first two pages--or, better yet, the first sentence and paragraph.  Give me a gimmicky opening over tortuous backstory and endless detail any day of the week.

5. FORCED.  I usually use this word to describe manuscripts that set out to be "funny."  I can almost guarantee you that if you laugh a lot at your own jokes, you're not funny.  One of my very favorite writers (and one of my all-time favorite finds) manages to combine some really intense psychological portraits with incredibly sharp humor.  Yet I'd never describe his books as "humorous" as "funny," though the reviews often point out how satirically on-target they are.  He's not trying to be funny.  He is funny. 

6. HO-HUM.  A ho-hum manuscript might actually be a good book if you were stranded on a deserted island with nothing to read but pulp fiction.  It has all the right elements but doesn't manage to rise above the everyday formula.  Sadly, a competent, ho-hum  manuscript won't make it in this cutthroat era.  If we can't get excited about it, we're not going to be able to get readers excited about it, either.

7. INANE.  I don't mind a wild plot.  In fact, I sometimes love them, as in those over-the-top capers that I find absolutely wonderful on airplanes.  I can get past some pretty big plot contrivances, but when characters do ridiculous things, the manuscript moves into the "inane" category, and I run for the hills.

8. DEPRESSING.  I like characters to have conflicts that need to be resolved, but I don't like depressing mysteries peopled by depressed characters.  This may be (read: is) my personal taste, but I don't think the typical mystery reader wants to spend time around dystonic individuals, particularly alcoholics and drug addicts.  I sometimes think that such depressed characters are the creation of writers with "literary" ambitions, and that the works are published by editors and/or houses that like to see themselves as the oh-so-serious keepers of Contemporary Fiction.  I have no such ambition.  I want to enjoy reading the book, not congratulate myself for having gotten through it. 

9. AMORAL.  This one is a real problem with me.  I don't think of myself as a prig, but I like a book to have a moral center.  I sometimes feel that some of today's thrillers cast the villains almost as heroes, asking the reader to sympathize with them or even root for them.  The very worst offender in history, I believe, is Thomas Harris' Hannibal, which basically pits two digusting psychopaths against each other and asks the reader to sympathize with one of them (Hannibal Lecter himself).  I actually feel like a creep for having read it until the end, when I should have tossed it into the garbage pail.

10. DULL.  Frankly, I use this adjective most often with regard to setting.  Please do not be offended by this, but not all settings are created equal.  The fact that a writer lives in a certain city or state does not automatically make that city or state a good place in which to set a novel. 

All of this said, I do like to keep Mysterious Matters mostly positive, so let me end with a few words of encouragement.

There are certain words that we don't throw around easily.  That is, when we say them, we usually mean them.  If we say that a manuscript is well-written, we really do think it's written well.  A word that I like to use when I've take a fancy to some part of the manuscript is clever (and I think that being clever is probably one of the most important characteristics a mystery writer must have).  Finally, if I say that I will be glad to consider future submissions, this means that I think you have what it takes to get published, even if your current work isn't right for me at this time.

Politics and the Mystery

I think I'm probably not alone in feeling frustrated with everything in our highly imperfect political system: candidates, parties, platforms, campaigns...the list could go on and on.   The frustrations are many, but I think my core issue is my feeling that I personally cannot do anything to effect change.  I live in a state that's dominated by one party, and I'm an independent.  I can't vote in our primary, and in the general election I'll be forced to vote for one of the major parties, though I don't want either one. 

While simultaneously feeling sorry for myself and raging against the machine, it occurred to me that perhaps we readers and lovers of mystery read in the genre precisely for this reason.  In mystery, one person can and does make a difference.  It takes just one person to re-open and solve a cold case, or investigate a crime that nobody seems to care about, or take action when the hands of the police are tied.  The classic sleuths investigated crimes for a living (and most had independent sources of income, which helped); and of course we still have those who work in crime-related fields (plenty of fictional P.I.'s, detectives, and police officers).  However, laypeople/amateurs have become as much a part of the landscape as professionals--and these are normally workaday people who wouldn't be considered "heroes" in their everyday lives.  But they take on the system, or the killer, or the villain--and through sheer force of will (or craftiness, or some other positive quality) they triumph.

So--Perhaps the mystery genre is a way for the writer to single-handedly correct the wrongs of society, and for the reader to imagine a world where it's somewhat easier to influence an outcome or make a positive change.