Books

Montgomery Simplifies

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David Montgomery reviews my brother Tod’s book SIMPLIFY on his site today. And he likes it.

Short story collections are nearly impossible to review, especially in
anything under several hundred words. (How do you comment generally on a book
that contains twelve different stories that vary in plot, theme, quality, etc.?)
Still, there are a few observations that one can make about Tod Goldberg’s
Simplify. The stories are sharp and insightful, many of them dealing
with issues emerging from childhood. The writing is often funny, even when it’s
painful, and always to the point, with keen dialogue and a strong voice.
Finally, the stories on the whole are powerful, provocative and a pleasure to
read. The title entry, in particular, is a minor masterpiece.

Harry Potter and the Curse of the Remainder Mark

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Although Scholastic sold nearly 11 million copies of HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE in the U.S., The Independant reports that the publisher printed too many copies…and is facing returns of  about 2.5 million unsold books.

The company ordered 10.8 million copies of Half-Blood Prince, the largest
print run in the history of publishing. "We wanted enough books out there so
every single fan could get a book when they wanted it," explained Scholastic’s
Kyle Good. "This was the number we came up with in collaboration with the
retailers."

Buoyed by the news that Half-Blood Prince had sold 6.9 million copies in the
first 24 hours, 1.9 million more than on the first day of the previous Potter
tome, Scholastic promptly ordered a further 2.7 million copies, bringing the
total to 13.5 million.

"This is a cause for celebration, not just for Scholastic but for book lovers
everywhere," chirped Lisa Holton, the president of Scholastic Children’s Books,
at the time.

Now, Scholastic’s chairman, Richard Robinson, whose father Robbie founded the
firm in 1920, admits bookshops have been left with 2.5 million unsold
copies.

Mr Robinson told book-trade analysts he had no plans for accepting large numbers
of returned books. He expects that the release in the US of the film Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire on 18 November will generate renewed interest in
the series and mop up the overrun.

Along Came a Ghostwriter

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Galleycat pointed me to this New York Times article about James Patterson’s money. In middle of the article is an interesting tid-bit about Patterson’s frequent use of ghostwriters and collaborators.

Although Mr. Patterson has been as good as any other top author at
marketing his own identity, he said his strength was in storytelling.
"I spin yarns," he said. "I love it. I have a folder with several
hundred ideas for stories. They just come and I’ll say: ‘There is a
story here.’ "

During a visit to Chapel Hill, N.C., for
example, he saw posters asking for help in finding missing women. That
led to the plot for "Kiss the Girls," a 1995 thriller about two
murderers who compete to kill girls. The book is in the Alex Cross
series, which is centered on the exploits of a black detective.

Mr.
Patterson said he often worked with co-authors because he believed that
he was more proficient at creating the story line than at executing it.

"I found that it is rare that you get a craftsman and an idea
person in the same body," Mr. Patterson said. "With me, I struggle like
crazy. I can do the craft at an acceptable level, but the ideas are
what I like." He said the co-authors received a flat fee and, most
often, credit on the book cover.

In novel writing, as in advertising, Mr. Patterson wants the final
say. Once there is a first draft of a book that has a co-author, "I may
ask the collaborator for a polish," he said.

"Then I do the remaining rewrites," he added – sometimes as many as seven.

 

M Is For Mystery

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Yesterday, I signed at M IS FOR MYSTERY is San Mateo where I met some people I’ve only "known" online, like Rachel (one of my students at Writers University), Keith (the one who isn’t Keith Snyder who comments here), and Teresa (webmistress of a great MONK site). It’s a friendly little store in a charming neighborhood that feels like a small town, circa 1964. Even though I grew up in the Bay Area, I somehow never managed to get to San Mateo before. It was a nice trip. After the signing, I made the long drive back to L.A., listening to Ron McLarty do his usual magnificent job performing an unabridged reading of an Ed McBain 87th Precinct novel. This time, it was the return of The Deaf Man in HARK. Another 100 miles, and I would have finished it…but so far, I’m enjoying the book.

Right Back Where I Started From

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I spent most of Friday roaming around SF, taking pictures and basically just soaking up the locale for my third MONK novel, tentatively entitled MR. MONK AND THE BLUE FLU. This is my second research trip to SF. Although I grew up in the Bay Area, I don’t know the city as well as I would like…at least not if I’m going to be writing about it.

In the evening, I made my way over the traffic-clogged Bay Bridge to Berkeley where I was the guest at Mystery Reader International’s "At Home" author chat…held, appropriately, at MRI leader Janet Rudolph’s hillside home. Among the attendees were author David Corbett and Left Coast Crime/Bouchercon Monterey organizers extraordinare Bill & Toby Gottfried. I told my usual lies and exaggerations and a good time was had by all (especially me).

Now I’m sitting in San Mateo, where I will be interviewed today by the founder of a MONK fanclub/website and signing THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE at 2pm at M IS FOR MYSTERY. Then it’s a long, six-hour drive back to L.A…listening to music on my iPod and a book-on-tape (I finished listening to the lastest Spenser, SCHOOL DAYS, and wasn’t wowed. It’s one of the weakest entries in the series…but at least Susan wasn’t in it, which was a plus).

Going Home Again

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Last night, I had a signing at the Barnes & Noble in my home town of Walnut Creek, California. I drove up from Los Angeles, which took longer than usual due to rain, fog, and more cops on the road than I’ve ever seen before (I guess end of the month is ticket-quota time).  But it was a pleasant drive. I lost myself in mysteries — finishing a  J.A. Jance book on tape and starting the latest Spenser.

Once I got up to Walnut Creek, I couldn’t resist visiting Emil Villa’s Hickory Pit, a place I used to love as a kid. It’s probably been a decade since I’ve eaten there. Well, memories can be tricky things. Either I’ve changed or the ribs have. They tasted like they were frozen and then marinated in solvent.  I should have known better — they weren’t good ten years ago, either. Why did I think they’d be more like I remembered now?

I did some drive-by signings at  B &N in Concord, B&N in Dublin, Borders Express in Concord and Borders in Pleasant Hill before heading to the main event in downtown Walnut Creek.

The signing didn’t pack a big crowd, but I never mind that. The bookstore ordered quite a few copies of THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE, which were prominently displayed (and had been for the week prior to my arrival and will be after I leave), and there were two posters in the store announcing the event. They even had a healthy number of DM books on hand. There was a film crew there from Rossmoor, a retirement community that has their own television station (The DM books are big with the retirees, as you can imagine), so my signing will air on TV in the next few weeks, so I reached more people than actually attended. I was on a mike, so more people came as I started speaking, answering questions, and telling all my Hollywood anecdotes.

I finally got to meet Chadwick Saxelid, who has reviewed the DM books on Amazon and is a frequent visitor here — and who I just killed (with his permission) in the DM novel I’m writing now. And my old high school chum Jim Sampair showed up with his lovely wife and mother (I’ve always known her as "Mrs. Sampair, " so when it came time to sign her book, I realized to my embarrassment that I didn’t know her first name!). I also forgot, in middle of my talk, how many days there are in a year — I blame those solvent-soaked ribs for my mental hiccup.

Tonight I meet the members of Mystery Readers International at Janet Rudolph’s home in the Berkeley hills. I’ve heard from lots of other authors that her "At Home" events are a lot of fun, so I’m looking forward to it.

Riding into the Sunset

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Author Jory Sherman blogs about the death of the western novel, a genre he excels at.

Now, I see some small signs of life, but the publishing industry continues its
blind slaughter of the genre, a veritable libracide using the tactics of small
print orders, no publicity, no nurturing of new writers and the gradual genocide
of the older ones.

Some writers are dropping out, having seen the bold
handwriting on the wall, and turning to the Mystery novel, the Christian, or
other markets. The Western, which has made great strides as our exclusive
American literature, is being ignored by the publishing industry, the
distributors, wholesalers, book sellers, and the reading public.

It’s
not dead yet. It will probably never die, because of the power of its mythical
backbone. We are the only country in the world which has the Old West,
and we have the brave writers who continue to explore its oceanic depths, its
big sky heights.

But, we’re dying out, too, along with our books which
are being killed off, one by one, by the insidious indifference of all
concerned.

The real loser here, is, of course, the Reader, who never saw
the blips on the radar and if they ever did, never cared. They missed a lot, and
that’s a crying shame.

Award Winning POD Isn’t Winning

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David Montgomery reports that the  "winning" novel in the  Aspiring Authors Contest, sponsored by the POD vanity press Lulu.com,  is the perfect candidate for self-publishing…because it’s doubtful any other publisher would be interested.

The purpose behind this contest was to legitimize the self-publishing or
vanity/POD "alternative" for writers unable to break-in via the traditional
route. If the sponsors could come up with a great book, one of the alleged many
that languish unpublished due to the elitism and ignorance of New York
publishers, surely this would be a triumph for aspiring vanity authors
everywhere.

Well…not so fast. Unfortunately, it turns out that the book wasn’t
very good.