Current Affairs

Where Books Sell

by

Paul Levine tipped me off to this interesting blog post by James Grippando, who was on a panel with James Patterson at a marketing seminar. Some interesting facts came out at the seminar about where the most books are sold…

Can you name the two main outlets for hardcover bestsellers? Are you guessing Barnes and Noble and Borders? Wrong. It’s Costco and Walmart. The key to my question is the word bestsellers. Costco and Walmart sell fewer titles, but they sell more bestsellers. Their share of the book market overall, says Deighton, is 12%, but their share of the “bestseller” market is 34%. Here’s something else I found interesting: In 2004 Amazon.com had only a 2% share of the bestseller market—a number that Deighton regards as “relatively insignificant.”

Just goes to show that authors and self-promotion gurus who fixate on Amazon stats are wasting their time.

LAT FLAT

by

The LA Times Book Review has been slightly more readable and a lot less snooty under editor David Ulin, but it’s still dull, uninspiring, and a bore to look at. And the advertisers are bored, too. Like most readers, the advertisers are ignoring the section entirely. Publishers Weekly notes that there were only two ads in the Feb 25 issues — one for a ghostwriting service, the other an announcement of a David Mamet signing at Borders.

Both LAT editor James O’Shea and book editor David Ulin said the paper is committed to providing extensive book coverage, including reviews. But while O’Shea said he had rejected a suggestion from his predecessor that he kill the Sunday book review, he hinted that it may not remain a stand-alone section.

Whenever I left town on business, I used to have my wife save the Book Review sections so I could read them when I got back. A few months ago I told her not to bother. I don’t even read the section when I’m in town anymore.

(Since Ulin took over, the blog critics of the Book Review have been notably silent. Perhaps because Ulin is, I am told, a more likable guy than his predecessor and shrewdly hired several of the bloggers as freelance reviewers, effectively silencing them. Another former critic of the Book Review just sold his first novel and, perhaps, doesn’t want to upset any reviewers. All I know is that they’ve shut up…and the Book Review isn’t much better than it was before)

I’m all for radical change at the Book Review, because as it stands now, the Fry’s ads are more fun to read and more interesting to look at. They need to make it livelier, more relevant, and a lot more visually appealing. If that means bundling the reviews with an existing section (like Calender), then so be it. I think the only thing that has kept the throwaway Book Review alive this long is that killing it would have reflected badly on hugely the successful (and wonderful!) Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and the prestige of the Times book awards.

Remembering Richard S. Prather

by

The appreciations for my friend Richard S.  Prather are coming in from all corners. Check out what J. Kingston Pierce, Ed Gorman, James Reasoner, Bill Crider, and Steve Lewis have to say.

Author  Stephen  Marlowe contributes an entertaining essay today on Ed’s blog about what it was like collaborating with Prather on a Shell Scott/Chester Drum novel, an idea cooked up by their mutual agent.

[…]Until then, we had never met. We developed the plot as
we went along, mostly by long-distance phone call. There were telegrams
too, including one that went something like "Body of Hartsell Committee
lawyer found in Rock Creek Park" that must have startled the Western
Union operator.

[…]Well, we finished that first draft by writing alternate chapters, as
those of you who read the book may remember, Scott narrating chapter 1,
Drum chapter 2, and so on–to a total of more than eight hundred
pages–enough for three Gold Medal books. Drastic measures had to be
taken.

Ever been out to the Coast? Dick asked me by phone. Nope, I
hadn’t. Well, said Dick, come on out and we’ll help each other cut.
How? I said. There was a silence. Maybe, I suggested half-heartedly, I
cut your deathless prose and you cut mine. Maybe, Dick said. Come on
out.

So a couple of days later I flew out of Idlewild for LA, and
was met at the airport by Dick Prather and his wife, Tina, in a snazzy
pale blue Caddy.

    "It’s yours while you’re here," Tina said.

    "Huh?"

"Well, you see, we’ll work together at the house but we figured you’d
like some privacy, so we booked you a room at a seaside motel."

    "So the car is all yours while you’re here," Dick explained.

The Prathers were like that–private people but the best hosts I’d ever known.

They Hate Me, They Really Really Hate Me

by

My brother Tod stumbled on a seething horde of  people who really, really hate me and he couldn’t be happier about it.

They are fucking hysterical. I mean this. I laughed my ass off reading
about their hatred of Lee, their dubious thoughts on me (they are
particularly upset with my poor grammar and word choice and misogyny,
which is basically what Wendy is upset with me about on a fairly
regular basis, but someone liked "Simplify" which thrilled me, as that
is, and always has been, my favorite story)  and then their rants on
other topics happening in and around fandom. I spent about thirty
minutes reading this website and I about pissed myself. I’ve actually
bookmarked it.

UPDATE (2-19-2007): Tod only scraped the surface. There’s much more Lee-hating to enjoy.

Dueling Marlowes

by

Last week, ABC announced they were "updating" Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe as the basis for a possible TV series set in present-day Los Angeles. Now Universal Pictures has announced  that they are developing a new Marlowe movie, a period-piece that will star Brit Clive Owen.

Strike has made a deal with Phil Clymer at U.K.-based Chorion to get
rights to a Chandler mystery series that includes "The Big Sleep" and
"Farewell My Lovely." Strike’s Marc Abraham and Eric Newman will
produce the film, with Owen exec producing. The project is in a nascent
stage — they are courting writers and filmmakers — and they haven’t
decided which title to adapt.

But they sparked to having Owen
narrate the dramas in Chandler’s testosterone-laced prose, something
Owen did well in "Sin City." The plan is to keep the noir spirit of the
Chandler books, and keep the mysteries set in the 1940s in Los Angeles,
with Marlowe continuing to be the hard-drinking, wisecracking gumshoe.

The irony is that the last Marlowe movie starred Robert Mitchum and was set in London. This is sort of the reverse of what Universal has in mind this time.  What I don’t understand is how it’s possible for these dueling projects to exist…has Marlowe slipped into the public domain? If not, there’s probably a very interesting (and very complicated) rights story behind this…

Links A-Go-Go

by

I’ve been away in New York for a few days at the Mystery Writers  of America board meeting and am just now catching up on my favorite blogs. Ordinarily, I’d build whole posts around some of the stuff I’ve found…but I’m too lazy. So you will have to see for yourself what Emmy Award-winning writer Ken Levine has to say about Aaron Sorkin’s dig that he wasn’t a "real" comedy writer.  And you’ll have to experience for yourself the utterly bizarre "Galactica-A Team-V" crossover fanfic that my brother Tod stumbled upon.

Proofs as Proof

by

Novelist John Connolly just got the page proofs for his new book THE UNQUIET:

It’s always interesting to receive the proofs, as it’s the first time
that I get to see the book as it will look to the public, i.e. typeset,
and no longer simply my manuscript. At that point, a transformation
occurs in the way I view it. It is not just something that I rustled up
on my computer. It’s a book, and I judge it in a different way. I
notice elements that perhaps I did not recognise before. I become more
conscious of themes running through it, and I become aware, for want of
a better word, of the ‘feel’ of the book.

I know exactly how he feels. I just finished going through the proofs for DIAGNOSIS MURDER: THE LAST WORD and I felt as if I was reading someone else’s book. It didn’t seem to have any connection to the "file" I emailed to my editor months ago. I was reading it fresh and I was surprised by some of obvious themes that ran that ran through the book…themes I wasn’t even consciously aware of as I was writing it. 

When I read the proofs, I find myself seeing the prose, the characters, and the plot differently than I did in the midst of working on the book. But most of all, reading THE LAST WORD, I was aware of a pace and rythmn to the story that I definitely didn’t feel while I was writing it in bits and pieces, at different times and in different places (L.A., Germany, Palm Springs… and at my desk, on airplanes, in hotel rooms, in waiting rooms, in my car, etc.)

The term "proofs" has a double-meaning to me. Holding the proofs, I have evidence to convince myself that what I wrote is actually a book…it’s the first time the story feels like a book to me instead of work.

Race Track Romance

by

HelenKay Dimon reports that Harlequin is releasing a line of  NASCAR-themed romance novels in February for women who get hot thinking about race car drivers.

The introductory titles are by Gina Wilkins, Nancy Warren, Debra Webb
and Roxanne St. Clair. The series will consist of four titles every
three months (release dates in February, May, August and November). For
the mathematically challenged – and you know who you are – that’s
sixteen NASCAR titles a year. As I’ve said before, those are likely
sixteen titles per year I won’t read.

Just imagine all the inventive racing metaphors for sex we’re going to see…and clever uses of the words "stick shift."

Forget NASCAR.  I’m waiting for Harlequin to launch the Home & Garden Channel line of romances, where women fall madly in love with hunky guys who never tire of visiting open houses and remodeling homes. My wife will be first in line to buy them.

Half-A-Billion Bond

by

Nikki Finke reports that CASINO ROYALE has become the biggest grossing Bond film ever, earning more than half-a-billion dollars worldwide ($100 million more than DIE ANOTHER DAY, the previous record holder).

As of Sunday, the new Bond’s estimate is $553.3 mil globally  (int’l $390.7 mil and domestic $162.5 mil). The studio expects Casino Royale to end up with as much as $575 mil theatrically worldwide.

I wonder how all those irate fans (the 007 equivalent of the Colonial Fan Force) who spent months whining all over the web about "the blond Bond," castigating Daniel Craig’s performance (sight unseen), and delighting in his on-set injuries (he broke some teeth in a fight scene) are dealing with this news.