Tim Wohlforth wrote:
<<But there is a problem with new PI fiction. Certain
established writers are doing just fine with the sub-genre:
Crais, Pelecanos, Grafton come to mind. I once pointed this
out to a top NYC agent. His response was that while some PI
novels hit the best seller lists it was almost impossible to
sell a PI novel to a major publishing house. Go figure!
I have a PI series published by a small press, Quiet Storm.
Jim Winter also shares this publisher. One novel, NO TIME TO
MOURN, was published in 2004 while the second in the series
RUNNING OUT OF TIME is due out in a month or so. It has been
tough sledding. I have had some successful book talks
(including 3 just this last week or so). However, it is
extremely difficult to get books into mystery bookstores and
independents, not to mention the chains. Not impossible, but
close to it. And reviews in major outlets, critical to sales,
forgetaboutit.>>
I found an agent a couple of years ago for the first
book in my Eamon Gold PI series, GRASS SANDAL. She worked her
butt off trying to find a home for it at one of the major
publishers, without success. I have all the rejection
letters, which she sent me after we decided (very amicably)
to part ways.
Most of them said the same basic thing: "Love the
book, can't sell it." Because this series is based on the
traditional PI formula, the editors saw it as a throw-back.
Several mentioned that it was reminiscent of Crais' THE
MONKEY'S RAINCOAT, or some of Spillane's work. All of them
said that it would be very difficult to sell it in today's
"competitive market". One agent rejected it, saying that he
absolutely loved it, but had no idea who in New York would
buy it. He thought that he might have been able to sell it to
Otto Penzler, but then Penzler dropped out of the publishing
biz, leaving the agent with no viable options for selling a
new traditional male PI series.
The authors that Jim mentioned (Pelecanos, Crais,
Grafton), are not new to the business. They've been around
for a pretty respectable period of time. I have a hard time
thinking of a single new PI writer over the last five years
who has hit the ground running and scored a major hit. For
better or for worse, name recognition sells books, and there
simply aren't any new "name" PI writers. Because of this, the
major publishers are gunshy about taking on a new series in
what they see as a vanishing genre.
Fortunately, there is a publishing niche for PI
writers at places like Quiet Storm, UglyTown, and Back Alley.
If you are devoted to the genre, and really want to write it,
there are places to get published. You just have to be
willing to give up niceties like large advances, widespread
distribution, and print runs in the tens of thousands. You
should also probably forget about making a significant amount
of money. Writing the PI series these days is very much a
labor of love.
I have a new agent now, but she's working to sell a
different kind of series. The Bigs seem much more amenable to
police procedurals and thrillers, so I've headed off in that
direction. I'll still pound out the occasional Pat Gallegher
or Eamon Gold story, and the thriller I wrote last year
included a female PI as a major player, but for the time
being the handwriting is on the wall.
The good news is that what goes around comes around.
In time the PI genre will regain its mass appeal. I'd
suspect, though, that as a genre it will look substantially
different in form and style than what we grew accustomed to
reading in the twentieth century. The twenty-first century PI
has to embrace technology in the real world, and I have a
feeling that this will be just as important in the fictional
one as well. That's one of the reasons I kind of liked the
series EYES last year, with Tim Daly. While it was a one-joke
show, I do think it was a portent of things to come. R
Richard Helms Two-Time Shamus Award Nominee Look for
CORDITE WINE (0-9710159-6-1), the second Eamon Gold PI novel,
from Back Alley Books! website: http://hometown.aol.com/murdvoocarre
"Cordite Wine is tough, funny, exciting, and very good!"
-Robert B. Parker
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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