Outtakes from This Week’s PW Story

Sarah Weinman makes her Publisher’s Weekly debut in the current issue with an article about the commercial tension between thrillers and mysteries and the recent formation of International Thriller Writers as a counterweight of sorts to the Mystery Writers of America (but, just so we’re all clear here, there’s no feud; members of each group get along famously with each other, and there’s some overlap as well). I chipped in with a few interviews, and as always happens when producing a wide-ranging piece, there was material we didn’t get to use because of space constraints. For example, we didn’t use any of the conversation I had with Lee Goldberg about the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, a support group for people who write novelizations and “based on the hit series”-type books he co-founded with Max Allan Collins. (Goldberg’s working the Diagnosis Murder and Monk beats, while Collins has most recently written CSI and Bones novels.)

We also had to leave a great conversation with the mystery field’s all-around impresario, Otto Penzler, on the cutting room floor, when we abandoned a sub-theme to the piece dealing with some of the other “splinter groups” that have formed within the mystery/thriller genre over the years, as groups like the Private Eye Writers of America and Sisters in Crime formed in response to perceived slights by the prevailing sensibilities. “They’re all full of crap,” Penzler told us. “If you write better books, you get all the respect and sales that you deserve.” He also explained why he has no patience for a certain type of mystery known as the cozy, which he dismisses as “a cheap equivalent of chick lit”:

“I think noir writers are writing the very best books they know how to write. They may fail; there are terrible noir writers out there. But the cozy chick lit stories are cynical, in the sense that an editor says, this is the guideline, this is what I want you to write… Look at how many really good-selling female traditional cozy writers there are, with cats solving crimes and people taking an afternoon off during a murder investigation to shop at Prada. I don’t think those are writers who are stretching. I don’t think they’re trying to write anything of enduring quality. I think they’re writing to sell books, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but you don’t have to take it seriously as literature, and I don’t.”

As I say, though, I only played a supporting role in a piece that totally plays to Sarah’s strengths as both a book critic and an industry observer.

Along with what Ron posted, there were other lines of inquiry that didn’t make the final piece. One had to do with the 20th anniversary of Sisters in Crime – and now that the organization tops 3400 members, the original mission of promoting neglected female mystery writers has changed, according to SinC president Libby Fischer Hellmann. “Now it’s about keeping women published in a market that remains extremely grim. And even though we’ve achieved rough parity in terms of how many women are reviewed compared to men, it’s still critical to get more attention from readers, reviewers and publishers for our member authors. It’s become easier for women to be published at the beginning of their careers, but what about what happens afterwards? What should we be doing so that female mystery writers are considered for awards, review coverage and more money?”

As part of SinC’s 20th anniversary celebrations this fall, Borders will feature a display of books and additional material (including a booklet featuring all Sisters in Crime member authors by location) at each of their 480 stores. “We’re pretty excited about this, and we hope to replicate what Borders is doing for us in September with independent bookstores the following month,” Hellmann said.

One particular niche that serves each gender well and has grown in prominence – even if total sales may not be in line with said growth – is crime fiction in translation. “It’s great that these books are finding their audience,” said Kent Carroll, editor-in-chief at Europa Editions. “It goes to show that there’s an underserved market for crime novels originating in other countries, and not that readers are abandoning some subgenres for others.”

Carroll explains that Europa, with its early success in publishing “Mediterranean Noir” novels like Jean-Claude Izzo’s TOTAL CHAOS and Massimo Carlotto’s THE GOODBYE KISS draws not only from the backlist available to edizione/o, its Rome-based parent company, but from their demographics. “We’re finding that our books appeal to younger women, who read true crime, domestic stories and want a heightened sense of reality, as well as middle-aged men – people who are reflected in the protagonists of the books we publish.” Meaning that so far, Europa’s crime novels feature “adventurous younger women” and “gruff, middle aged policemen or criminals.”

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