DaRK PaRTY ReVIEW

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Thoughts from the Shadows: The Craziness of Publishing

Commentary from Crime Writer Dave Zeltserman

Recently on Jason Pinter's blog, “The Man in Black,” he had folks offering their thoughts on what problems exist in the publishing industry and what could be done to fix them. Some interesting ideas were tossed around, and while I don't want to kick a dog when it's down—especially a dog I'm dependent on, here's my suggestion: every single person in publishing who was involved in turning down JK Rowling's Harry Potter needs to be fired. Booted out the door. Now!

But I digress.

I want to instead write about a film option I just sold and how it relates to the problems with publishing. The film option sold is for an unpublished book titled “28 Minutes.” I originally wrote this book in 2004, with the title then as “Outsourced.”
The book was about a group of software engineers who were made basically unemployable due to the industry's push to outsourcing (the process of moving American job overseas to places like India). Desperate as they see their middle class lives crumbling apart, they come up with an almost brilliant plan to rob a bank. Almost brilliant, since things don't quite work out as planned.

In 2005 my literary at that time started shopping the book around and there was initially a lot of interest with editors in New York digging the book, but ultimately none of them could get it through their editorial boards, and the feedback I got from one of the publishing houses was that the board was worried whether outsourcing would still be relevant by the time the book was published (it would've been published in '06 or 07, yeah, right, outsourcing was really about to disappear from the public consciousness by then!).

Early in 2006 a top film agent, Steve Fisher at APA, read the book and decided he was going to get this made into a movie. He started pitching it then, and there was a lot of interest in Hollywood, and over the last three years there have been a lot of false starts with different players.

On Tuesday, I signed a contract selling the film option for this unpublished book to Constantin Film Development and Impact Pictures with John Tomko (“Ocean's 11,” “Falling Down”) and Jeremy Bolt (“Resident Evil,” “Death Race”) to produce. Here's the difference between how Hollywood looked at the book and how the publishing industry looked it—Hollywood looked at it as a great story that would make a great movie, and while deals along the way fell apart due to scheduling conflicts, it never changed the excitement that they had for this book. The New York publishing houses, on the other hand, looked for excuses not to publish it. I think in a nutshell that points out what's wrong with the New York publishing industry.

So where does this book stand now? Well, last year I stripped out the outsourcing angle, making the software engineers more as people out of work because of time and technology passing them by, and have a deal in place for the UK rights and am now working out the US rights. Can the New York houses still find an excuse not to publish it? I doubt it, but they can be a creative bunch, so we'll see.

(Dave Zeltserman lives and writes in Massachusetts. His crime novel “Small Crimes” was called a “thing of beauty” by the Washington Post and National Public Radio named “Small Crimes” one of its five best mystery novels of 2008. Dave also publishes his own blog, Small Crimes. He publishes the column Thoughts from the Shadows for DaRK PaRTY.)

Dave Zeltserman at Amazon.com

Thoughts from the Shadows: Seismic Changes in the Publishing World

12 Signs You Might Be a Literary Agent

An Interview with Crime Noir Writer Scott Phillips ("The Ice Harvest")

Labels: Dave Zeltserman, Publishing, Thoughts from the Shadows

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Posted by GFS3 at 7:01 AM.

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Monday, January 05, 2009

Thoughts from the Shadows: Seismic Changes in the Publishing World

Commentary from Crime Writer Dave Zeltserman

Everyone who's been paying attention knows that many, if not all, of the large publishing houses are struggling badly right now. The numbers show that there has been a gradual decline in readers, and the explanation usually given is blaming things like shifts in technology (people spending their reading time surfing the web as instead of reading books) and more entertainment choices; such as video games and more TV and film options.

You can't argue with numbers, but I don't believe these reasons cited is why readership is down. J.K. Rowling and her Harry Potter books show that readers will flock to compelling books. Instead I'm blaming it on several seismic changes that I've witnessed to the publishing landscape since the early 90s when I started writing, and I believe these events have more to do with the current state of publishing than anything else.

My next few columns here on DaRK PaRTY will be looking at these seismic events and how they affected publishing.

Major seismic event: The Cheap PC.

When I finished my first novel “Fast Lane” in 1992, personal computers (PCs) had been around for a while but they weren't cheap, and most families didn't have them. They were mostly for hobbyists and computer professionals. So back in 1992 when I sent query to editors at many of the major New York publishing houses, most of them responded, with around 10 of them requesting the manuscript.

When I finished my next novel “Bad Thoughts” in 1997, one editor at Warner Books responded to my query letter. The difference: PCs had become cheap, and as a result publishing houses were being flooded with manuscripts and these houses responded by slamming the doors shut and making literary agents the gatekeepers. Writing a book in longhand or pecking away with a typewriter takes work and serious commitment. Using a PC makes it ridiculously easier, and really makes it so that anyone can write 300 pages, and a lot of people were doing exactly that.

Publishers shutting their doors to first-time writers was a big event, as was making literary agents the de-facto gatekeepers. It removes the editors from one step in the process, and puts more emphasis on commercial feasibility as opposed to literary merit and developing talent. But that was only one effect of cheap PCs and the sea of manuscripts, which they had unleashed.

Of course, another obvious one was that it made it a lot easier for serious writers to get lost in this unrelenting tidal wave of manuscripts. If an agency was now getting hundreds of manuscripts sent to them each week instead of tens, less time was going to be spent evaluating any of them, making it harder for these better books to surface.

Then you had new technologies and businesses that needed to be developed to sop up the demand that these new writers had to be published. Publishing on Demand (POD) technology and quick, easy self-publishing businesses came out of this. iUniverse alone has more than 20,000 mystery novels that have been self-published. Let me repeat that. 20,000 mystery novels from just one of these self-publishing outfits.

With POD technology, anyone can become a publisher with little investment. This may make publishing a more democratic endeavor, but it's not a good thing.

But let's go back to maybe the most critical effect this had on the more legitimate publishing houses. As literary agents were wading through manuscripts it was only natural for them to spend less time with any one manuscript and to quicker toss a submission, as well as looking for patterns to spot the more formulaic books that have higher perceived "commercial viability".

But again, this was only one of the major seismic events that have led houses to care more about "relentlessly commercial" writing than the value of the book, and I'll be discussing more of these in future weeks.

(Dave Zeltserman lives and writes in Massachusetts. His crime novel “Small Crimes” was called a “thing of beauty” by the Washington Post and National Public Radio named “Small Crimes” one of its five best mystery novels of 2008. Dave also publishes his own blog, Small Crimes. He publishes the column Thoughts from the Shadows for DaRK PaRTY.)

Check out Dave Zeltserman on Amazon.com

Thoughts from the Shadows: The Thompson Question

The Diary of Jimmy Cronkle: Unpublished Novelist

5 Questions About: Crime Noir

Labels: Dave Zeltserman, Publishing, Thoughts from the Shadows, Writing

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Posted by GFS3 at 8:37 AM.

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Monday, December 01, 2008

Thoughts from the Shadows: The Thompson Question

(DaRK PaRTY is tickled pink – and blue and red – to have cajoled and begged Crime Writer Extraordinaire Dave Zeltserman to become a regular contributor to the DaRTY PaRTY ReVIEW. Dave will be authoring an occasional column about crime writing and publishing called “Thoughts from the Shadows.” This is his first commentary! Enjoy!)

Commentary from Crime Writer Dave Zeltserman

"Jim Thompson is the best suspense writer going, bar none."
-- New York Times

"A blistering imaginative crime novelist… a classic American writer."
-- Kirkus Reviews

Between 1952 and 1964 Jim Thompson wrote what are arguably his most famous crime noir novels, including "Killer Inside Me", "Savage Night", "A Swell-Looking Babe", "A Hell of a Woman", "The Getaway", "The Grifters" and "Pop. 1280". All in all, Thompson wrote 26 novels, a number of which have been made into movies, including "The Getaway" twice, with recent word that a new version of "Killer Inside Me" starring Casey Affleck as Lou Ford is currently being planned.

Thompson is considered not only one of the great crime writers of American literature, but one of the great American writers period. You can see his influence in a whole generation of current crime writers, from James Ellroy to the Galway born writer, Ken Bruen. Outside of maybe Hammett, Chandler and James M. Cain, it's hard to think of a writer who has had a greater influence on American crime fiction.

So the question is: Could Jim Thompson be published today?

Well, yes, I have little doubt that some of the Independent houses in the United Kingdom, like Serpent's Tail, No Exit Press and Bitter Lemon Press, where the quality of the book is more important than the perceived "commercial value" would jump at the chance of publishing these books. Perhaps also some of the small U.S. houses.

So let's refine the question. Would any of the large New York houses publish Thompson today?

No. At least I don't think so.

I have little doubt that editors reading his manuscripts would fall in love with them and want to buy them, but then fear would come into play. The fear that someone along the way in the decision process would complain about the books being too dark. Or too edgy. Or that there was an unlikable protagonist—or worse even, a protagonist who's a full-blown crazy. They would be too afraid that somewhere along the line the book would be shot down, that someone would feel their time was wasted. Ultimately they would be afraid that their career would be irreparably damaged because they recommended a book that fell outside the lines, a book that was too different, that wasn't written in a "relentlessly commercial" style.

These editors would probably tell Thompson how much they loved his writing, but they that need something more mainstream from him. Something safer, something more commercial. And maybe after having a half dozen or so of his books rejected for not being safe enough, Thompson might've quit writing. Or worse, give up his brilliant and unique noir vision to write "relentlessly commercial" thrillers.

At least that would be my guess.

(Dave Zeltserman lives and writes in Massachusetts. His crime novel “Small Crimes” was called a “thing of beauty” by the Washington Post and National Public Radio named “Small Crimes” one of its five best mystery novels of 2008. Dave also publishes his own blog, Small Crimes.)

10 Bizarre Serial Killers in History

Our Interview with Dave Zeltserman

Our Review of "Small Crimes"

Labels: Dave Zeltserman, Jim Thompson, mysteries, Thoughts from the Shadows, Writing

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Posted by GFS3 at 8:53 AM.

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