Mysterious Matters: Mystery Publishing Demystified

Beautiful, Lovely, Gorgeous, Et Al.

I recently finished a freshman effort - a historical mystery. Didn't love it. 

First let me say that I think historical fiction is probably the toughest subgrene to carry off well. (Well, maybe not THE toughest. Humor's difficult, too. And there can be a fine line between hard-boiled and perverted.)  When not done well, historical fiction can be turgid (and this one was). There's also the heavy challenge of making conversation sound somehow "real" for the period while not making it tough for the reader to follow. (Crichton's TIMELINE solved that with technology; when all those folks got transported back in time to the medieval days, they were equipped with in-ear technology that converted Middle English to Modern English. Convenient!) Some (many?) of the historicals (especially in manuscript) read like textbooks on the period because the author has felt the need to include every interesting detail unearthed in the research.

But the challenges of writing historical fiction aren't the reason for today's post. I don't usually get too much into the weeds of the craft of writing - you know, whether it's OK to say "There is" and "There are" or whether "data" is singular or plural. However, this particular book had a problem that I realized I see not infrequently in manuscripts: The repetition of the same word in a sentence or paragraph.

Here's my advice: Don't do that.

In the course of one not-very-long paragraph, the author in question used the word "beautiful" three times. One might argue that the copy editor should be fired, but a manuscript with that kind of repetition shouldn't have been turned in to begin with. As writers, you're expected to have more facility with the language, to have a good grasp of synonyms. For beautiful, this author could have substituted lovely, gorgeous, stunning, dazzling, breathtaking ... the list goes on and on.

There is something lazy about a writer who can't be bothered to find different ways to express the finer gradations of a concept. I think this deficit registers with readers (and it certainly registers with this editor). Interestingly, I think this problem is symptomatic of this particular writer's issues - s/he described everything in a sort of freshman-essay style. I have no doubt she got the period details correct, but much of the description (and there was A LOT of it) felt lifted from an art history textbook. This was the primary reason the book didn't work for me; it didn't help that the mystery wasn't particularly good, either.

So, for the aspiring authors out there, do check for word variety before you submit to anyone.

[Maybe I'll do another post on some picayune grammar points I have noticed of late. Point #2 would be: Don't use semicolons. No one knows what they mean.]

 

Steampunk, Anyone?

The "steampunk" subgenre has been flitting around the outskirts of my consciousness for the last couple of years. It's one of those terms one hears whispered on the wind, a sort of suggestion that one resolves to look into, at some point. So I finally got around to it, and I'm glad I did.

I'm in somewhat murky waters here. I feel qualified to write about "mystery"/"crime fiction" and its various subgenres; "steampunk," not so much.  As I am coming to understand it, it's more of a subgenre of science fiction/fantasy than mystery, and yet - now that I've read two such books - I can see where and how steampunk would appeal to mystery lovers.

For those of you who haven't dipped their toes into the waters into these books yet, here's the definition from Wikipedia:

 

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually thebVictorian era Britain—that incorporates elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them; based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include such fictional machines as those found in the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne.

Other examples of steampunk contain alternative history-style presentations of such technology as lighter-than-air airships, analog computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace's Analytical engine.

So, where is the connection to mystery, you may ask?

 Check out, as an example, George Mann's The Affinity Bridge. This is the first in a series; you might not be able to see it from the book image at left, but the subtitle is a "Newbury & Hobbes Investigation."  Maurice Newbury works for Queen Victoria, investigating all kinds of phenomena. His "assistant" is Veronica Hobbes, though she serves more as a partner than an assistant. In this first book of the series, Newbury and Hobbes are called onto investigate the crash of an airship/dirigible that was piloted by an automaton. A relation of Queen Victoria's had been on board, which is why the investigation has a certain urgency. In the meantime, Newbury battles an addiction to laudanum, while Hobbes has a few secrets of her own.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. While the description of Steampunk from Wikipedia (above) makes it seem as though the genre is "dark," I wouldn't say that The Affinity Bridge is deeply noir. I found the writing clever; the pacing fast; and I liked the respectful and friendly relationship between Newbury and Hobbes.  Meanwhile, supernatural beings called "revenants" are roaming the streets of London while airships fly overhead, and a "glowing policeman" seems to be taking revenge on the people responsible for this death. It's a heady mixture that (described to me out of context) might make me raise my eyebrows in skepticism. And yet it somehow all works together in this fictional world created by Mann. I had no trouble suspending disbelief once I got into the book (and I do believe that some of the best storytellers are those who are the best at making readers see very strange occurrences as the norm). 

I don't know if Jedediah Berry's The Manual of Detection would be "officially" considered Steampunk, though it does seem to be inspired by that subgenre. The setting is not Victorian-era London but rather what seems to be Victorian-era New York City (the city is never named), where a huge, nameless Agency is in charge of investigating crimes. The world here is highly Orwellian, with each job within the agency having its own hyper-specialized duties, and the members of each department not allowed to speak with the members of other departments. So, the book seems not only Victorian but also futuristic, and probably owes a bit of debt to the dystopian world of the movie Brazil and others like it.

"The Manual of Detection" refers to the book given to each agency Detective upon being appointed to his post. However, the last chapter of the book has been expurgated because it deals with something called "oneiric detection" - or detection through dreams. The villain is stealing all the clocks in town, using a carnival as a sort of hiding place/base of operations. It's up to our hero, the mild-mannered functionary Charles Unwin, to get to the bottom of things, with the help of a femme fatale named Cleopatra Greenwood and a missing, perhaps murdered, Agency Detective named Travis Sivart. Unwin, who's happy being the best clerk he can be, is mysteriously promoted for no reason he can figure out, and the story proceeds from there, moving from reality to surrealism along a line that becomes increasingly steep as the story continues.  

The Manual of Detection is crisply and cleanly written; however, it does move at a slower pace than The Affinity Bridge, simply because the plot is much more convoluted. And for me - not being used to sci-fi, or punk, or post-modern writing - I had to keep re-orienting myself to the book's world. But I do think it's fair to classify it as a sort of mystery or crime novel, even if it's not what we expect - and that is part of the joy of the book.

I'm intrigued enough to think I might want to publish a Steampunk book or two; but I worry that I just don't know enough about that world to do justice to a manuscript - or to know what distinguishes good Steampunk from subpar Steampunk. And how would we market it? I wouldn't even know where to begin. If anyone reading this is a Steampunk fan or aficionado, I would love you to click on the "comment" button and share some of your thoughts about the subgenre. 

 

 

 

Top 10 List for the Unpublished

I know that readers of Mysterious Matters like my occasional "Top 10" lists (I'm reminded of the old Book of List series by Irving Wallace et al., quite big in the 80s, if memory serves. They were fun). Today I feel inspired to offer Agatho's Top 10 Tips for the Unpublished (a/k/a Top 10 Tips for Aspiring Mystery Writers).

10. Take yourself seriously, but not too seriously.  It's one thing to be devoted to honing your craft and getting published, quite another to set yourself up as the World's Greatest Mystery Novelist. 

9. Have something in your life besides your writing. It's really tough to make a living at this game. Enjoy it as a hobby, but do other things besides write and network. If all you do is eat, drink, and breathe your manuscript, you'll drive yourself (and everyone around you) crazy.

8. Go easy on the BSP.  BSP standards for blatant self-promotion, the type of promotion that one often sees at work on the Internet. There's a fine line between getting your work out there and making a pest of yourself. I've seen many a writer cross this line. In the early days of the Internet, it worked. Now I think it just turns a lot of people off.

7. Keep learning. Learn from your agent, your editor, other writers, best selling authors...anyone who has something to teach you. Be wary of anyone who professes to know it all. None of us do. And be especially wary of anyone who wants to charge you.

6. Understand basic economics.  You'll be a lot happier as a writer, with much more realistic expectations, if you understand how a business works and how business owners have to protect their bottom line. It's also important for you to understand the product you are selling - a book that has literally tens of thousands of competitors. (For those who know a little economics, established writers are working in a "monopolistically competitive" market, while new writers are working in a "perfectly competitive" market.)

5. Be patient. This whole process takes a long time, much longer than it should. That's just the way it is, and I don't see it changing any time soon. if you have other things in your life (see #9 above), you should be able to focus on other things while you wait.

4. Talk to librarians. Your local librarians have an excellent sense of the local market, of who's reading what and why. Ask them about your book, about its potential. If they're less than enthusiastic, take a giant deep breath, go home, and analyze what you're doing wrong.

3. Understand what happens when you go the self-publishing route. Many frustrated writers are turning to self-publishing (often in electronic formats), a few of them (but still a tiny percentage) to great success. Know that your work will not be reviewed by the most respected review magazines and will have no bookstore presence. The industry as a whole just looks askance at self-publishing as an outlet for the Deluded. (Whether this is a fair judgment, or pure snobbery, is a topic I've vowed never to get into.) Never, ever query an agent or editor by talking about your self-publishing activities. 

2. Treat your editor and agent as the professionals they are. Everyone who works in this industry has one common goal: to publish wildly successful books. Throwing accusations at your editor, publicist, or anyone that your book isn't being "supported" properly won't endear you to anyone and may cause your book to get even less support, because (as human beings) we respond in kind to those who treat us well.

And, finally...

1. Don't do it for the money. Do it because you love it. Whether you're published by one of the big publishing houses or a smaller independent press, the likelihood of you becoming wealthy from your writing is quite small indeed. And I think we see what has happened to a number of writers who do it for the money, who keep series going when the characters, plots, and general authorial involvement in the process have long since passed their expiration dates. If you do it for pleasure - and accept the pains that come with it - you'll meet some great some people along the way and have some fun. You'll meet plenty of jerks, too; but hey, the same thing would happen if you went to a grocery store.