Crime
Novels Today
One
Writer Connection (everything that touches writing)…
March
14, 2013
Crime
Novels Today
The blog was started as preliminary
essays for my upcoming memoir, ‘Writer, Author, Bull!,’ which covers my more
than fifty years in the writing racket; the changes that moved from a wide open
market with hundreds of small, low-pay magazines and ninety-five cent
paperbacks on drug store carousels through a dried up market with conglomerates
buying up most publishers, to the emergence of self-publishing and eBooks. My
slant will always be toward Mystery/Crime/Thriller with emphasis on the hard
tough crime novel because that is what I write. I don’t record the experience
of all writers, or even any other writers, the experience is entirely my own
because I’ve lived and worked through every phase; thus, One Writer Connection.
Part
of the blog title is, everything that touches writing. What interests the
writer touches the writing: agents, publishers, editors, ghost writing,
bookstores, conferences, critique groups, self-marketing, self-publishing,
eBooks, royalty percentages, movies, computers, travel, work habits, success,
failure – almost every facet of life might touch the writing. The purpose of
the blog and the memoir will be to aid those who have made the decision to get
serious about their own writing, and maybe keep them from a few pitfalls. The
key words are ‘get serious’ because every critique group is loaded with those
who play at writing and never do take it seriously. ‘Get serious’ means to
write steady and continuous, to write for publication with the intention to see
your work published, somewhere by somebody. And maybe pick up a few bucks doing
it. One page a day means one novel a year. If the plan is to suddenly sit down
and write a rocking million copy selling blockbuster best seller, or to pitch
an idea and walk away with a one million dollar advance, the path will be
lumpy, rocky and cluttered with high walls. Unless they are one of the handful
of popular millionaires selling today (one-percent), most published authors
still go to work every day or have an independent source of income so they can
write full time.
I am not a big name author; the
majority of crime novel readers never heard of me. My novels have been
published by smaller publishers. But I have more than thirty books out there and
I receive small royalty checks every quarter. I even won a literary award in
the Mystery/Crime/Thriller category at a writer’s conference. I’ve had agents
and not had agents. Currently there is no agent. I have a small retirement
income; I can and do write every day. I am not married so my needs are simple
and few. Two of my novels were published print and eBook in 2011, two more in
2012; two are pending for 2013. It hasn’t been my intention to write two books
a year, it has just worked out that way.
The future looks bright for those
who self-publish and self market through POD (print on demand) and eBooks, and
who are personable on social networks. Introverts who just want to write have a
rough road ahead; unfortunately, I fall in that category. Equally rough is the
actual sales of books in terms of dollars spent. Publishers have been gobbled
up by conglomerates and will only look at material submitted by an agent, and
are only interested in the type of material now selling well. The two or three
who will look at un-agented material show no interest in my stuff. eBooks are
easy to publish, might sell from two to two thousand copies but the author’s
cut is small because the retail price is small. Predicted success of eBooks
ranges wildly depending on whether it is the publisher talking or the retailer.
Not so bright are the increasing
number of publishers who will not look at new material; who state they are
temporarily closed to submissions. Even my small publisher (last three books),
who nobody ever heard of yet who rejects 95% of submissions they receive, has
announced they have closed their doors to all new author submissions. This is
so they can concentrate more fully on promoting the authors they have now. I’m
happy to be included because they offer the best contract in publishing.
Non-fiction that leans toward
self-improvement is what readers want. Since eighty percent of book buyers are
women, readers want books written by women about women. Romance novels are the
biggest fiction sellers, but the man can never be hard or tough, he must be in
close touch with his feminine side. The majority of agents and most publishing
editors are female. That makes all their selections subjective toward what
women like.
Webster defines Hardboiled as:
unsympathetic, tough, harsh, unsentimental. Try getting that type of
protagonist past an agent or editor today. A few famous authors of hardboiled
novels swung over to feature a female lead, and it works for them. The rest of
us write our tough guys and know from the first shot we’re aiming at twenty
percent of the market, and unless our guy is named Parker or Jack Reacher or
Milo, we’ll never get rich. Some writers sway with trends to write what’s
popular. We just plug along with our own guys because that’s how we are.
My books are available at all online
outlets. To see them: www.georgesnydersbooks.com
George
Snyder: freelancer66@earthlink.net
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