Isn't it supposed to get easier?

By Jenny Hilborne, author of mysteries and thrillers

I've heard a familiar grumble from lots of multiple book authors who find each book they write is more difficult than the last. I'm no different. Each new book is harder and takes me longer to write. I've asked myself why. Is the difficulty a sign of improvement, or an indication I'm somehow lost in the process, buried under all the new information I pick up? Am I trying too hard?

I'm currently working on my fourth novel, Stone Cold, and I'm finding it is my most difficult book yet. I said the same thing when I wrote book #3, Hide and Seek. I thought the writing process would be easier with each book -  I've picked up more and more tips, learned many of the "rules" along the way, and attended numerous workshops and writing conferences.

I first attended the Southern California Writers Conference in 2008, with a completed manuscript for my first book, Madness and Murder. I paid for a one-on-one critique with a publisher, who later became my publisher, but not until they'd rejected me, given me advice on how to fix my mistakes, and presented me with a rare second shot at submission. You see, I thought I knew enough to write a good book at that early stage, and I didn't. I've attended SCWC several times since, and always learned more and come away with great advice. Even after all this, I still find every book harder to write than the last.

Drew Kaufman and I briefly discussed this in a recent Facebook exchange. With all the feedback we've received, with what we now know and have learned along the way, why does each book become harder to write? Do we present our protagonists with more complicated challenges? Weave in more subplots? Do all authors feel this way? Are we improving or getting lost?

The more prolific an author is, the more readers expect from said author. Is this right? Fair? Well, I expect a lot from the well-known authors whose books I choose to read, yet I find I'm currently enjoying the books from lesser known authors much more. I've stopped reading Harlan Coben altogether. His later works don't impress me as much as the earlier stuff. I wonder if he got bored, or stopped trying as hard to please his audience, having "made it." In the works of some prolific authors, it's often easy to note similarities between books, a pattern if you like, or the authors voice. In some cases, this makes the outcomes of the stories predictable.

It's a challenge I struggle with myself. Only on my 4th novel, and I already find I have to work hard to avoid repetition, to stay creative and bring in new and unique threats, problems, and plot lines. After the release of my 2nd book, No Alibi, a returning reader remarked how my first 2 books were so dissimilar, they could have been written by different authors. Rightly or not, I took it as a compliment. I noticed from watching the X Factor how judges want new singers to be instantly recognizable to an audience by their style, their voice. This raised a question in my mind: do all authors have a "style"? Should they? Does it work the same way for emerging authors as for singers?

Back to difficulty: The hardest part of my first book was how to finish, writing a satisfactory ending. In subsequent books, this has become the easier bit. Now, I get lost in the middle. I know more about my writing and understand myself better as an author than I did several years ago, have learned more about character development, energy, pacing, consistency, small detail, yet it feels more than ever like work. Hard work.

Authors: Why are subsequent books more challenging to write? Is it because we continually raise the standards for ourselves as authors and strive to make each book better?

Readers: Do you like the authors you read to have a recognizable "style"?

The Criminal Choice Behind Burglary

by Tom Adair author of the 2012 Crime Thriller The Scent of Fear.

As a former CSI I tried to understand how the criminal thinks. It's impossible to consider every single motivation but there are some generalities that may aid investigators in uncovering certain clues. As an author I find this insight very valuable because weaving this mindset into your storyline gives a sense of realism I think readers respond to. Everyone wants to understand motive. It's how we begin to make sense of things and challenge our world view. As a reader I want to understand the motivations of the killer, victim, cops, and others too. It helps me understand why they do what they do.

I've talked to a lot of victims that ask me a simple question; "why me?". It's not a dumb question. While it is true that some victim's may just be int he wrong place at the wrong time (like a shark attack), others increase their vulnerability to crime and criminals (like joining a gang). So it's helpful to consider what types of factors criminals may consider when choosing a victim. I thought it would be simpler to frame the discussion within the topic of burglary. In truth, some of the selection criteria can be applied to other crimes as well but let's just stick with burglary for now.

Burglars typically choose a place to burglarize for one of three reasons. These are broad categories with some cross over but they will serve for the discussion.

1. Inside knowledge (intelligence)
2. Vulnerability with reward
3. Opportunity (wrong place wrong time)

Inside Knowledge: 
In the military this is called intelligence. You'd be amazed how often a burglary can be tied to intelligence. The world war two warning of  "loose lips sink ships" actually works with criminals too. If criminals find out that you have things of value they may want to look for an opportunity to take them. I often say that many criminals want "easy" so you have to do your best to avoid helping them. Here are some of the biggest sources of "intelligence leaks" in the household.

1. Children. Children are the worst. Kids love to tell stories and brag to their friends. "We just got a new computer", "My mom just inherited a bunch of money", "I just got a brand new XBOX", etc. Even when talking to 'trusted' friends the conversation may be overheard by others.
2. Social Media. I am always amazed at people that tell the twitterverse that they are on vacation. They get on Facebook and say "Hey! We're a thousand miles away from our house and NO ONE is watching it". Many don't have the smarts to lie and say something like "Thanks God my brother is on leave from the Marine Corps and is watching the house with an attack dog!".
3. Visitors to the house. This can be anyone from your son's new "gangsta friend", ex-boyfriend, or repairmen. We often don't consider what a stranger might see in our homes like jewelry being left out, or even where we keep money (when you pay a serviceman).

Vulnerability with Reward:
I link these two together because the burglar is more likely to exploit a vulnerability if they know there is a reward for their risk. One of the biggest vulnerabilities is easy access to the residence or business. Some of the biggest culprits are;

1. Open garage doors
2. Open windows or unlocked doors (houses and vehicles)
3. Items of value with easy access (like a purse or wallet left on the front seat of your car)

Other things can include ladders propped up against houses (for easy access to second story windows that are usually left unlocked) or newspapers or fliers piled up outside (indicating you're on vacation). The reward/risk issue is equally important. Wanna guess a percentage of how many homes displaying signs like "Dangerous dog", "Video Surveillance Used" or "Trespassers will be shot, survivors will be shot again" get burglarized compared to ones not displaying butterfly flags? Most criminals want "easy". Now all of this changes if your house is the only place to get what they want. So if you have a rare and valuable item (like the Hope Diamond) then the motivated criminal will look for a way to get it but, that is usually not the case. However, the higher the value of the item being sought, the more risk one may take to get it.

Opportunity:
This embodies the "wrong place, wrong time" meme. Obviously, the best way to avoid being in the wrong place is being more selective about the places we visit. I spend a fair amount of time in the back country of the Rocky Mountains. I feel much safer walking through the woods at midnight than an alley in many metropolitan cities. Some places are "wrong" for some folks no matter the time of day. Your characters may increase their risk of being attacked (mugged) because they are forced to go places they wouldn't normally choose. Maybe your PI has to go into a seedy bar or maybe somebody gets arrested and goes to jail for a few days. These exposures put them at increased risk. They may survive without incident but the tension is still there. From a criminal perspective it is literally the fly in the spider net. They simply wait for some unsuspecting victim to cross paths with them. The single attractive woman or suburban teenager with the iPod that has to ride a subway through the bad part of town at midnight.

Considering these factors when developing your plots, characters, and dialog will help explain the motivations of your characters and give a perspective for the reader when digesting the story. Remember, the motive has to align with the risk/reward calculus to be believable. A criminal won't rob a homeless man with a shopping cart full of old smelly clothes, empty liquor bottles, and a dead fish ;).

SOME GREAT RESOURCES FOR CRIME FICTION WRITERS & READERS

by Jodie Renner

New England Crime Bake

I'm compiling a list of resources for crime fiction writers and readers, and I'd love your help with it! So please, if you have any organizations, conferences, blogs, or other resources to add, let me know in the comments at the end and I'll add them.

Part I – Organizations, Conferences, and Conventions in North America and Great Britain, and a short list of good Blogs

ORGANIZATIONS:

Click on the organization’s name to go to their website.

International Thriller Writers - an honorary society of authors who write books broadly classified as “thrillers.” This would include murder mystery, detective, suspense, horror, supernatural, action, espionage, true crime, war, and action-adventure. ITW brings together almost 1000 writers, readers, publishers, editors and agents at its annual conference, ThrillerFest, as well as at CraftFest, a writing workshop program, and AgentFest, where aspiring authors can meet and pitch top literary agents.

Mystery Writers of America - MWA, founded in 1945, is the premier organization for mystery and crime writers, professionals allied to the crime writing field, aspiring crime writers, and folks who just love to read crime fiction. Each spring, they present the prestigious Edgar® Awards. MWA also helps to rebuild libraries and offers numerous symposiums and events for both authors and fans. 

Sisters in Crime – SinC has 3600 members in 48 chapters world-wide, offering networking, advice and support to mystery authors. Members are authors, readers, publishers, agents, booksellers and librarians who love the mystery genre and want to support women who write mysteries. Membership is also open to men.

Crime Writers of Canada – CWC is a national association for Canadian mystery and crime writers, associated professionals, and others with a serious interest in Canadian crime writing. Promotes Canadian crime writing. Newsletter, information on authors, awards, and links. The CWC has sponsored Canada’s Arthur Ellis Awards for Crime and Mystery Writing since 1984.

Crime Writers of Great Britain - A professional body which sets out to represent writers of crime fiction and non-fiction. The CWA has played a major role both in discovering and supporting the careers of many of Britain’s finest writers, including PD James, Ian Rankin, Frederick Forsyth, Ruth Rendell, Val McDermid and Alexander McCall Smith. Presents the annual prestigious CWA Dagger Awards to recognize quality in today’s crime and thriller fiction writing.
 

CONFERENCES, CONVENTIONS, & WORKSHOPS FOR CRIME WRITERS:
 
Click on the name to go to the website. Also see list of Writers’ Conferences and Book Festivals.

THRILLERFEST and CRAFTFEST – International Thriller Writers annual conference, New York, NY. July 10-13, 2013. A four-day celebration of suspense-thriller novels, the authors who write them, and the fans who read them. Includes Craftfest, the first day and a half, crammed with excellent craft workshops to choose from presented by bestselling authors, and Agentfest, a half-day of pitching to as many agents as you can cram in. Thrillerfest, the last two days, features excellent panel discussions on various topics.

BOUCHERCON Crime Fiction Convention – world mystery convention, open to anyone; a place for fans, authors and professionals to gather and celebrate their love of the mystery genre. Includes book-signings, panels, discussions, and interviews with authors and people from the mystery community covering all parts of the genre. Anthony Awards, named after Anthony Boucher, presented at the convention. Latest one: Oct. 4-7, 2012, Cleveland, Ohio.

LOVE IS MURDER MYSTERY WRITERS CONFERENCE, Chicago, IL. Feb. 1-3, 2013. The Love is Murder Mystery Authors, Readers and Fans Con is always Super Bowl weekend, at the Intercontinental O'Hare Hotel, just outside of Chicago. Draws more than 300 writers and readers from the U.S., Canada, and overseas. Features panel discussions, author signings, demonstrations, Lovey awards banquet, entertainment, and opportunities to meet mystery authors and network with other readers and fans.

WRITERS’ POLICE ACADEMY, Jamestown, NC. The Writers’ Police Academy offers the most hands-on, interactive and educational experience writers can find to enhance their understanding of all aspects of law enforcement and forensics. This is a one of a kind event, featuring real police, fire, and EMS training at an actual police academy. Top instructors and experts! Most recent one: Sept. 20-23, 2012

THE NEW ENGLAND CRIME BAKE Conference, Dedham, Mass, just outside Boston. Nov. 9-11, 2012 - an annual conference celebrating the work of New England crime fiction and nonfiction authors. Features panels, seminars, and interviews with authors, literary agents, and experts in forensics and other fields related to crime writing, as well as classes on writing craft, manuscript critiques, and book signing events. 

CAPE FEAR CRIME FESTIVAL – Feb. 1-2, 2013 – New Hanover Library, Wilmington, NC.
The festival is an intimate gathering for writers to learn about the craft of writing and promotion with other writing professionals.

LEFT COAST CRIME MYSTERY CONVENTION - March 21-24, 2013 - Colorado Springs, CO. LEFT COAST CRIME is an annual mystery convention sponsored by mystery fans, for mystery fans. It is held during the first quarter of the calendar year in Western North America, as defined by the Mountain Time Zone and all time zones westward to Hawaii.

MALICE DOMESTIC, annual traditional mystery fan convention, in Bethesda, MD. May 3-5, 2013. Malice Domestic is an annual "fun fan" convention in metropolitan Washington, D.C., saluting the traditional mystery—books best typified by the works of Agatha Christie. The genre is loosely defined as mysteries which contain no explicit sex or excessive gore or violence.

CRIMEFEST, Bristol, UK – First organised in June 2008, CrimeFest has become one of the most popular dates in the crime fiction calendar. The annual convention draws top crime novelists, readers, editors, publishers and reviewers from around the world and gives delegates the opportunity to celebrate the genre in an informal atmosphere. Includes author panels, crime writing workshops, a pitch-an-agent strand, etc. May 30-June 1, 2013, Bristol.

PUBLIC SAFETY WRITERS CONFERENCE, Las Vegas, Nevada. Open to those writing fiction or nonfiction about or for any public safety field. Conference speakers include a coroner, fire fighters, police officers, and others in the writing field. July 11-14, 2013

A SHORT LIST OF GOOD BLOGS FOR CRIME FICTION WRITERS 

Click on the blog name below.  If you have any more suggestions for blogs aimed at writers and readers of thrillers, mysteries, and other crime fiction, please let me know.

~ Crime Fiction Collective

~ The Kill Zone

~ Mystery Writing is Murder           

~ Murderati

~ The Writer’s Forensics Blog    

~ The Thrill Begins

~ Suspense Magazine’s blog

~ Sisters in Crime

~ Poe’s Deadly Daughters


Crime fiction authors and readers: Do you have any crime fiction organizations, writers’ conferences, fan conventions, or blogs to add to this list? If so, please use the comment boxes below and I’ll add them. Thanks a lot!



 

Jodie Renner, a freelance fiction editor specializing in thrillers and other fast-paced fiction, has published two books to date in her series, An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: WRITING A KILLER THRILLER and STYLE THAT SIZZLES & PACING FOR POWER (Silver Medal winner in the FAPA Book Awards, 2013). Both titles are available in e-book and paperback. For more info, please visit Jodie’s author website or editor website, or find her on Facebook or Twitter.

A Line in the Sand

by Peg Brantley


If you draw a line in the sand—over which you affirm you will not cross—where do you redraw it when a wave washes it away? Or when a jogger comes along and tramples it? Do you draw it in the same place or move it somewhere out of the way?

Integrity only means something when you stand strong. It's mist in the wind if you adjust your values because they become inconvenient. Keeping your integrity might mean you have to lose a few quick sales, or build your career a little slower than you'd like.

Here's what I've seen with many authors recently—traditional or indie:

A lot has been made lately about phony or paid reviews. Most of us were righteously indignant, and deservedly so. Some people unfortunately, simply wish they'd thought of it first. But that's only one piece of the game.

What about biographies? Is your biography dead-on, or have you played with reality a bit? I've heard it referred to as "permissive puffery" which to me is just another way of moving that line in the sand. Did you really make your living as a journalist or is the truth that your local hometown paper published two letters you wrote to the editor? Or that you were a star for your school newspaper?

How about calling yourself an award winning author because you came in second place in some obscure writing contest? (I have a framed certificate on my wall. Does that count?) I remember when I won that award, a friend told me I could now refer to myself as an award winning author. I think she meant it tongue-in-cheek, but it did make me wonder.

Then there's calling yourself a bestselling author because your book hit the top 100 of a free list, narrowed down by three or four categories? Are you serious? The NYT's Bestseller list has a few ethical issues of its own—don't compound it by adding yours.

Or review trading—explicit or implied. This was kind of a new one for me. No one actually came out and said "I'll give you a great review if you give me a great review", but the timing of their review and suddenly receiving their book made it hard not to hear those words. And when I wasn't crazy about their book? I sort of felt like I should somehow move to have their review taken down. It felt fake and sleazy.

To be perfectly honest, I asked a few readers who had given my first book a positive review to take a look at The Missings early in order to give it a nice bump at its launch. But I also spread that request out to others who may or may not have ever read my first book. One of my first 5-star reviews is from such a reader. Dishonest? Unethical? Lacking in integrity? I don't think those were any different than publishers sending out ARCs to try and get that same bump.

Writers, what about you? Have you seen things that made you shake your head? Were you ever tempted?

Readers, especially readers… have you begun to see through some of this stuff? Does it make you doubt everything?


Peg Brantley was never a journalist or a screenwriter or a sought after speaker. Although Amazon might say she has some bestselling books, she's still trying to reach that mark. Yes, she did receive second place in a writing contest once and even an honorable mention in another… but award winning? Net yet. RED TIDE rose as high as number two one time when she happened to look at the list. That was a kick. It didn't last.

Why I Chose Traditional Publication

A guest post by author Jaden Terrell 

When Peg invited me to submit this guest post, I had a moment of déjà vu. She had just read the first book in my Jared McKean series and said, “I don’t understand why you went with a traditional publisher. You’re good enough to make it on your own.”

Several years ago, an early version of the book was released (under a different title) through a self-publishing company. At the time, I kept hearing, “Why did you self-publish? You’re good enough to get a traditional publisher.” The paradigm has shifted that far and that fast.

The short answer to why I chose to go with a traditional publisher is that I’d tried self-publishing, and I didn’t like it much. I’m shy by nature, and being the sole person responsible for marketing my book was daunting. Successful self-publishing requires a thick skin and a skill set far outside my comfort zone. It requires the author to spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with things that have nothing to do with writing, which is why Amanda Hocking, who made more than a million dollars self-publishing, snapped up a traditional offer as soon as it was offered. If you don’t like or aren’t good at those tasks, or even if you just prefer to devote the bulk of your time to the actual writing, it’s a lot like being nibbled to death by geese.

Even if you take on the challenges, the odds of success are slim. According to Amazon, 30 self-published authors have sold more than 100,000 copies, 145 have sold more than 50,000, and “more than 1000” sell more than 1,000 copies a month. That sounds great until you realize that Lulu publishes 4,000 new titles a month and that there were more than 200,000 self-published titles last year. Bowker predicts as many as 600,000 self-published titles by 2015. So yes, there are more authors than ever making a living through self-publishing, but for every one of those, there are thousands more making little or nothing.

With traditional publishing, I have the support of my publisher, Marty Shepard of The Permanent Press. Although I still have to work at creating an online presence and building name recognition, Marty promotes his authors tirelessly. His company is well-known in the industry, and doors that were closed to me as a self-published author have opened because of his reputation. On my own, I was lucky to get a few reviews from bloggers I knew from DorothyL and other newslists. Since signing with The Permanent Press, I’ve received favorable reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus, and Booklist. I’ve been reviewed in and interviewed by Suspense Magazine and given an excellent review in Mystery Scene Magazine. Would these reviewers have liked the book as much in its earlier incarnation? I’ll never know because I could never have gotten in the door.

I have my doubts, though, because the main reason I chose to go traditional is that, as Dean Wesley Smith says, writers are terrible judges of their own work. For many authors, including Dean, that’s an argument for going ahead and putting the book out: let the readers decide. But for me, it’s the best argument in the world for holding off.

Let me back up a minute. When I started submitting the first Jared McKean book, I got an agent very quickly. We got a lot of “good” rejections from the big houses—the kind with complimentary comments and encouragement—but no takers. I knew there was something wrong with the book, but neither my agent nor I could put a finger on what it was. I did an extensive edit, and then a friend offered to publish it for me through iUniverse. “Worth a try,” my agent said, “since we’re not having much luck with it.”

So my friend and I published it, to little fanfare, and most people who read it seemed enthusiastic about it. Established mystery authors, like Kathryn Wall (who had also gotten her start by self-publishing), Sarah Shaber, and Patricia Sprinkle, treated me like one of the club. Despite the stigma attached to self-publishing, they never ostracized me. But I knew I hadn’t made the cut. And there was a reason for that. Looking back on that version of the book, it wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t ready. The book as it is now is so much richer and more polished. I learned a lot of valuable lessons from my self-publishing experience, but I do feel a pang every time a copy of that first version floats up on Google or Amazon, because it wasn’t the book it could have been. For me, that’s the peril of self-publishing. It’s so easy to “put it out there” before it’s ripe.

When I started getting rejections for the second book, A Cup Full of Midnight, I went to more workshops, read more books on craft, studied my favorite novels, revised, and rewrote. When my new agent, Jill Marr, sent me the contract from The Permanent Press, I felt like I had finally earned my place in the club. Most important, when I got Marty’s edits, his input made the book a thousand percent better than it would have been had I put it out myself. So those agents who rejected the book were right to reject it, and I’m grateful they did, because the result was a better book.

I don’t say I would never self-publish again; some of the most talented and successful authors I know, like Timothy Hallinan, have a foot in both worlds, publishing some titles through traditional means and others on their own. Once I have a few more books under my belt and know I’ve developed “the chops” for it, I’d like to do the same. But I will always be grateful for the chance to publish with Marty. As Spock might say, “May he live long and prosper.”

There are more options for writers than ever before. For those of you who write, are you choosing to self-publish or pursue a traditional contract (or both)? What led you to that decision? How will you meet the challenges of the option you chose? 

Jaden Terrell is the author of the Jared McKean mysteries and a contributor to Now Write! Mysteries, a collection of exercises published by Tarcher/Penguin for writers of crime fiction. Terrell is the executive director of the Killer Nashville Thriller, Mystery, and Crime Literature Conference and a recipient of the 2009 Magnolia Award for service to the Southeastern Chapter of Mystery Writers of America. Learn more at http://www.jadenterrell.com.

How Should a Character be Killed?

By Andrew E. Kaufman

I know it’s an odd question coming from someone who writes thrillers, but recently, I had to give it a lot of thought.

I was about halfway through my latest novel, when I suddenly realized that one of my characters needed to die. It made perfect sense, and most importantly, was a crucial element in driving my plot.

Admittedly, I’ve killed off plenty of characters in my books, and figuring out the method was never a problem, but with this one, I actually hadn’t planned on it, so the surprise caught me a little off-guard.

I really had to think about this.

While killing off a character has to work well with the plot, just as important, is how they are killed. It has to connect with the suspect’s frame of mind and their motivation, fit perfectly within the story, and it has to make emotional as well as logical sense.

I’ve often read books where the method of murder made me scratch my head. It didn’t fit, seemed illogical, and as a result, bumped me out of the story. I remember one in particular where fancy explosives were used, and yet there was no mention prior to this that the killer had any knowledge on the subject. As a result, I lost confidence and interest in the story and in the author. I stopped reading.

In this instance, in my book, the killer was sending out a message, so it not only needed to be powerful, but it also needed to be specific and had to resonate strongly with my protagonist. I wanted it to shake him up in a very personal way. In other words, I couldn’t just shoot the victim dead because it wouldn’t have meant anything to the reader and would feel like a copout.

After a lot of struggling, a lot of thought, I did finally figure it out. I don’t want to give away the story before the book comes out, but I will tell you this: the message was that my protagonist was playing with fire.

I think you can figure out the rest.

But how about you? Authors, what goes into your thought process when you decide to kill off a character? Do you ever struggle with it? 

Readers, what’s your experience been? 

The Mystery of the Missing Rejection Letter

By:  Kimberly Hitchens is the founder and owner of Booknook.biz, an ebook production company that has produced books for over 1,000 authors and imprints.

As some of you know, I spend a fair amount of time at the Amazon KDP (Kindle Digital Platform) author's forums, a task I was requested to do by KDP personnel when our company apotheosed to the Amazon Professional Converter's List.  Even though that was a few years back, I still visit the forum and provide helpful hints to DIY publishers, and a recurring thread has led me to this post.

Two of the most common posts at the KDP, in the General Questions forum, are variants of these: 

"Can you please take a look at my book listing here (insert link), and tell me what you think?" or, "OMG, I received a bad review!  I've read and re-read my book, and this is obviously a malicious review, this person is out to get me, and I want everyone here to agree that this is clearly evil."

Now, this inevitably leads to an unhappy author, as people will unfortunately tell him/her exactly what they think.  In the case of the former, often, the author has never asked a stranger what they thought of her novel--this is the first time that someone who isn't near and dear to them has viewed it.  Almost inevitably, when I view the "Look Inside" for someone in this category (of unaudited books) I wince.  It's usually pretty awful. 

In the case of the latter (malicious review complaint), another unhappy series of occurrences happens in rapid sequence, which usually inflames the situation.

When an author on the KDP posts that s/he has received a bad review, you can rely upon the instantaneous angry reaction from his fellow authors.  A mob mentality arrives faster than an ambulance to an accident scene, and the poor upset author is urged to report the malfeasant for "malicious reviewing."  Unfortunately, they almost always follow this advice and try to a) get the review removed, and b) "report" the reviewer for malicious reviewing.  It's enough to put me right off reviewing books, I can tell you that for nothing.

Now, I recently wondered why this happens.  I mean, I get it; a person's feelings are hurt, they're angry, and they want revenge/payback/gratification that they're right, and proof of their theory that the reviewer is secretly their 8th-Grade frenemy Charlotte who's come back to haunt them.  But--why does this happen?  I don't remember, even a mere 10 years ago, this type of crushed reaction to a simple "bad review." 

The Rejection Rumba

Then it dawned on me--we're now talking about an entire generation of authors who've never known a rejection letter.  I mean, think about this seriously:  authors who've never thrown a manuscript over the transom; who've never received a rejection letter.  Who've never been ignored, or turned down by, an Agent.  They've determined to write and  publish a book, and they do so.  Isn't the phrase itself, "author who's never received a rejection letter" oxymoronic?  Isn't it practically a fantastical creature?  When this struck me, I wrote a  post on the KDP, with words to this effect (the KDP "upgrade" seems to have nuked older entries, so I can't find what I originally wrote):

There was a time when a rejection letter was a rite of passage for any writer.  Everybody had them; everyone you know who wrote anything had them.  Some took them hard; some took them apparently lightly; but a rejection letter was always a cause for an authorial get-together, usually over a bottle of booze with ever-declining levels, during which everyone commiserated with you and diligently searched the rejection letter word-by-word, poring* over it, seeking any tiny pearl, any wording or phrasing that led you to believe that the Acquistions Editor didn't think that you were a completely hopeless loser.  Usually (in private), there might be tears.  Maybe the now-empty bottle would meet a hapless wall.  And always, a hangover ensued**.  But then life would go on; you'd curse the tasteless acquisitions editor, who after all, turned out to be a cretin (obviously); and you'd start writing again.  Maybe you'd rewrite bits of what you'd submitted; maybe you would start on something new while you submitted and resubmitted the rejected manuscript...but you'd keep writing.  And the cycle would repeat. 

And if it didn't...if you couldn't take the rejection letters...you'd leave the game. 

And that, I believe, is the difference.  The difference in why so many new authors, self-published through the KDP (or any other platform) never develop the traditional Rhino Hide (Of the genus Nauagahyde) formerly required for a writer to truly make it in the world.  They've never undergone the Rite of the Rejection Letter, or the abusive snark of an overworked Agent.  Nor have they, it seems, in ever-increasing numbers, used critique groups, editors, proofreaders, manuscript assessment services (caveat emptor), writing partners, or even beta readers that aren't their family or their best friends.  Like far too many politicians, they've only developed synchophantic "readers" of their work.  No one ever tells them what they don't want to hear. 

The Planet is My Critique Group

Thus, when they unwittingly decide to use the entire English-speaking portion of the planet as their critique group (Amazon, Barnes & Noble), they're devastated to learn what they should have learned in a Creative Writing 101 class, a good writing course, or simply by using a rotten human as a sounding board.  When I've mentioned this to those who've inquired, they reply that "critique groups are mean," and thus they won't use them.  Is it truly better, I must wonder, to use the public as a critique group?  How is that less painful?  How can they possibly be prepared for the reality of reviews, when they've never even had a critique?  Is there greater anonymity in being blasted with scathing reviews than suffering the slings and arrows of a writing partner or class or group?

I'm not sure when this happened.  I don't know when the tide turned, and people who'd always wanted to write a book simply sat down and wrote one, without what used to be "de rigueur" for a published work.  But turned it has.  If you spend a week of time glancing at the books promoted/asked about on the KDP, that much is clear. 

But now, in addition to the "kindness of strangers" known as the Amazon review, we also have Amazon itself playing the game, sending ever-more-frequent takedown letters to authors who have even the slightest of typos--never mind unreadably bad writing--in their books.  How will this affect these selfsame authors, if at all?

I'm left to wonder.  I wonder if reviewing, given the recent scandals and what I see daily on the KDP as near-hysteria over bad ones, will be eliminated from Amazon.  I wonder if the Customer Service burden of investigating every reported "malicious review" will cost Amazon so much money, and so much brain-damage, that they'll decide it's not worth it--either self-publishing or reviews. I wonder if the flagrant disregard of any type of pre-publication critique means that these lower-quality books will create a permanent underclass of books that tars Indies with the same brush. 

I hope not.

# # # 

* (Yes, I mean poring, not pouring.)
** Now I eat Haagen-Dazs, no demon rum for this girl, with far too many Irish ancestors.  ;-)

Books Within a Book

Miss Me When I'm Gone by Emily Arsenault (William Morrow trade paperback, 31 July 2012).

Emily Arsenault's third novel, like the first two*, blew me away.

In this story, Gretchen Waters, the modestly successful author of a series of essays called Tammyland, written during a trip to Nashville after her divorce, dies after falling down a slippery staircase.  Her dear friend Jamie Madden is asked by Gretchen's family to complete the follow-up book which was nearly finished.

As Jamie soon discovers, this involves going through boxes and boxes of paper and notebooks as well as computer files on top of her job as night-shift copy-editor at a newspaper.  She learns that Gretchen was nowhere near finishing the book, but in fact was writing on a different topic altogether:  focusing on the violent death of her mother when Gretchen was about seven. 

Intrigued, Jamie, who is heavily pregnant,  starts retracing the trail of Gretchen's research, contacting and visiting all the people her friend had, not really knowing why she's doing it.

What's wonderful is that Arsenault includes chapters excerpted from Tammyland, as well as Gretchen's notes for the new book.  In essence, she has created three (well, almost) books in one.  Any one of these stories would be fascinating on its own, but by intertwining them, Arsenault has taken what could have been a tangled mess, and turned it into awesome piece of work!





FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the publisher, who sent me an advance copy of the book for review purposes.

*The Broken Teaglass (Delacorte, 2009) and In Search of the Rose Notes (Morrow, 2011)