I think this is a lot of the trouble for us who write crime
fiction.
Publishers seem to need a hook to hang something on, and if
it seems
neither fish nor fowl, they often do nothing. I'm thinking
in
particular of a fine novel James Colbert wrote several years
ago called
"No Special Hurry." It was the finest thing he wrote in
his
all-too-brief career, but his publisher didn't recognize it
as a 'crime
novel' but didn't think they could market him as a
'mainstream' author.
The marketing for the novel was zero to the bone and it went
nowhere.
Also heard Dan Woodrell say not long ago that he invented the
subtitle
"A Country Noir" to describe his more recent books to Henry
Holt. He's
being marketed fairly well and is in the high point of his
career right
now. Are his last two books crime novels? There's a lot of
love and
death at work, and the characters have a kind of
proletarian/tough
guy/loser bent to them, but they're certainly not mysteries
(neither
were any of his other books).
-- ************************************** Robert E. Skinner, Director Xavier University of Louisiana Library 7325 Palmetto Street New Orleans, LA 70125 (504) 483-7303 (voice) (504) 485-7917 (FAX) e-mail: rskinner@mail.xula.edu ************************************** # # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.