Crime Fiction Dossier

Most Reviewed Books of 2007

PublishersMarketplace compiled a list of the 50 Most Reviewed Books of 2007. (#1 was Run, by Ann Patchett, reviewed 28 times.)

Only three books that could loosely be considered crime fiction were on the list, and they were all written by literary authors:

3   The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins)     26 reviews
18   New England White, by Stephen L. Carter (Alfred A. Knopf)      20 reviews
43   Christine Falls, by Benjamin Black (Henry Holt)      15 reviews

(Harry Potter came it at #37, with 16 reviews. It was the only book on the list that I read.)

Final thoughts on marketing/publicity

Everybody knows that it's tougher than ever to get attention for books in today's market. Authors have to work twice as hard and twice as smart in order to achieve success. Furthermore, every person's goals and experiences are different -- that's why it's crucial to gather as much information as you can before you commit to spending your hard-earned bucks. The purpose of these posts isn't to try to convince anyone to do one thing or another. They are, however, intended to get people thinking and to provide information to help authors make smart decisions.

I hope you found them useful.

Discussion on marketing/publicity, part 4

Continuing our discussion on marketing and publicity for authors...

Allison Brennan, New York Times bestselling author, shares her views:

I considered hiring a publicist. As background, I have six published romantic thrillers all of which hit the NYT list, the last two the print list. I'm published in PBO and my publisher distributes my books well, with co-op, etc. The reason I was thinking of hiring one was to help push me to the next level, find non-traditional means of publicity like through working mom's magazines (I have five kids) and bookstores -- particularly indie bookstores since I already have a strong presence in the chains.

I made a list of why I thought I needed a publicist, then sat down at a conference with my agent. We went through all the things I wanted a publicist for, then she talked with others at the agency, and while she came back with publicist recommendations (and I also asked M.J. Rose for recommendations because I trust her about all this stuff!) she also said it really would be a waste of money. Basically, what I wanted was all stuff my publisher could do. We needed to tell them what was important to me, and then talk with them about each individual item and see if they would do it.

They agreed to almost everything, and even came up with some other ideas (like having two different covers for my next book, ala Greg Iles' True Evil. But some of my ideas weren't great, and while I'm sure a publicist would have happily taken my money and worked them, I don't know that they would have translated to more sales.

One other thing is that publicists can't guarantee anything -- reviews, interviews, radio, tv, etc. So it's a lot of money for a crapshoot -- unless like M.J. said you have some big meaty hook that would have media people salivate to get you in their magazine/on their tv show.

Also, good publicists are expensive. I would never recommend to anyone to spend their entire advance -- or half their advance -- on a publicist. Okay, if you're James Patterson and have made money in marketing and want to run your own PR campaign for your book, go for it, but for most of us we don't have that kind of money to spend. And remember -- anything you do had better be backed by your publisher in terms of distribution. For example, are your books going to be readily available for people to purchase? If you spend all this money on promo and publicity, and then your books are only available at select bookstores or online, then you've wasted a lot of money (IMO).

I'm sure some people will disagree with me. I'm sure some people have had success with a publicist and spending mega bucks on promo. But I still think writing another good book is the single best promo for your backlist.

So before you spend big bucks, first see if you can get your publisher to pay for any of your ideas. You might be surprised. For example, if you have an idea of putting ads in a specialty magazine -- like dog magazines -- because your series is about a dog walker, maybe they would do it. If you want to send ARCs to specific booksellers, maybe your publisher will print up another 50 and cover your list. I'm sure there are other ideas.

Discussion on marketing/publicity, part 3

Following up on the question of hiring a PR person, I shared this:

I tend to think that an independent publicist is of little value to most authors when it comes to getting reviews, profiles or feature pieces. Thinking back, I believe I've only reviewed one book as a result of a publicist's exhortations -- and that was because her pitch intrigued my editor. (And the author in question was a bestseller who had a cool off-the-book-page hook.)

Unless you're well known, a major newspaper is extremely unlikely to run a piece about you. However, your local paper is a decent shot, especially if you have some compelling hook. And you can contact them on your own. (A solicitation from you directly might even be more helpful than one from a publicist.)

As for reviews...The usual tactic by independent publicists is to send out mass emails to reviewers with a synopsis of the book, asking if the reviewer is interested in receiving a copy. But your in-house publicist is probably already doing that. And even if they're not, this approach has a very limited rate of success. (And you can always send out books yourself.)

I have also found that some publicists do more harm than good, mostly by being annoying or demanding. Sometimes the actions of a publicist will make me less likely to review a book, rather than more.

Getting reviews is mainly just a matter of sending books to the right reviewers and hoping for the best. A publicist will not increase your chances of success.

There are certain kinds of publicity -- radio & tv especially -- that only a publicist can help you with. But when it comes to the kinds that I've mentioned above, you can often do just as well with a little effort yourself.

Discussion on marketing/publicity, part 2

Continuing our discussion on marketing and publicity for authors...

The question was raised about the pros and cons of hiring a PR person. M.J. Rose responded with this advice:

The press is not interested in fiction/fiction authors in general. Only the biggest/richest/most famous. In general, I'd say that 80% of us don't need big traditional PR people, but combos of other things.

So to beat those odds, you need to know:

1. What's the book about?

2. What is your goal in hiring someone? Reviews? Off the book page stories about you/book? Interviews?

3. Who is the publisher? What is the expected print run? How important is the book to the house? Is it a lead title? Are they doing anything for the book you know about other than review copies and coop?

4. Who are you, other than "an author"? Famous, infamous, background, specialty? (Meaning: Barry Eisler was in the CIA so he wrote a CIA novel - he'll have a better shot at getting PR than me, an ad exec, writing a CIA novel.)

5. What do you think someone would write about in the press when it comes to your book? Other than, "this authors wrote this good book." What's the news? What's the story?

6. What is your budget? $2000-5000? $5000-10,000? $10,000 plus?

7. Pub date of the book?

Once you have the answers to those questions, you'll be in a much better position to start making informed decisions about what to do with your promotional money.

Discussion on marketing/publicity, part 1

There's been an interesting discussion on marketing/publicity on ITW's ThrillerWriters message list recently. It started out as a discussion on book trailers, but has moved on from there. A few people have contributed some excellent advice that I wanted to pass along because I think it's worthwhile for all authors (or prospective authors) to read. (The posters gave their permission for this to be used.)

M.J. Rose, marketing guru and thriller author, was first up with these thoughts:

The rule of thumb is this: When figuring out where to spend your marketing/PR dollars, a video comes after a website and advertising. A video is what to put in your ads. It’s not an ad PR effort on its own. The questions to ask are: How will this help me? Where will people see it?

Never do a video as the only effort. Never do a website as an only effort. They are both static -- meaning no one sees them unless they go looking for them. The bulk of your money and effort have to be on outreach, not in-reach. Videos and websites are both in-reach.

Make sure to ask your publisher: if you do a video, will they pay for it? Will they pay for half of it? If not, and you pay for it yourself, will they use it? How?

There's no magic bullet to marketing your book. The only way to do it is do a lot of different things in as many places as you can. The goal is get exposure for the book in as many places as you can, in as many ways as you can.

The other goal is: for every PR dollar you spend, spend an equal marketing dollar. Meaning: if you hire a publicist for $10,000 you should be spending the same thing on marketing. The reason is that PR is a gamble even with the best PR people, and marketing is an absolute.

(With non-fiction it’s easier to get PR, but with fiction it’s very hard even for the biggest names. For instance, Jon Stewart has 200 books a year on his show. None are fiction.)

I'll share more thoughts in the next post.

3 Favorite Books of 2007 - The final tally

Sixty-eight authors, editors, agents and critics responded to this year's poll, producing a diversity of favorite books that was quite impressive. The majority of the 200+ selections were unique, with only a handful showing up on more than one person's list.

Here are those books that did appear multiple times:

7 picks:

• James Lee Burke - The Tin Roof Blowdown

5 picks:

• Laura Lippman - What the Dead Know

4 picks:

• Lee Child - Bad Luck and Trouble
• Charlie Huston - The Shotgun Rule

3 picks:

• Michael Chabon - The Yiddish Policemen's Union (plus 1 pick for The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay)
• John Connolly - The Unquiet (plus 1 pick for Bad Men)
• Gillian Flynn - Sharp Objects
• Cormac McCarthy - The Road

2 picks:

• Linwood Barclay - No Time For Goodbye
• Elise Blackwell - Grub
• Toni McGee Causey - Bobbie Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day
• Colin Cotterill - Anarchy and Old Dogs
• Robert Crais - The Watchman (plus 1 pick for L.A. Requiem)
• Judith Freeman - The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved
• Al Guthrie - Hard Man
• Robert Harris - The Ghost
• Craig McDonald - Head Games
• Marcus Sakey - The Blade Itself
• Jeremy Scahill - Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
• Peter Spiegelman - Red Cat

There was also more than 1 pick for:

• Ken Bruen: 1 pick for Priest and 1 for Blitz
• Joseph Finder: 1 pick for Power Play and 1 for Killer Instinct
• Joe Hill: 1 pick for 20th Century Ghosts and 1 for Heart-Shaped Box
• Donald E. Westlake: 1 pick for The Mercenaries and 1 for What's So Funny?
• Daniel Woodrell: 1 pick for Winter's Bone and 1 for Tomato Red

Thanks to everyone for playing! We'll probably do it again next year.

Book of the Week: Matthew Reilly's "The 6 Sacred Stones"

If you're looking for fine writing and character development and all that fancy stuff, look elsewhere. If, on the other hand, you're looking for the literary equivalent of an Indiana Jones movie, this is the book for you. Matthew Reilly's prose is only serviceable at best, but his imagination -- and his sheer audacity -- runs circles around most writers. The 6 Sacred Stones is never remotely believable, but, damn, it's a lot of fun to read. (One thing to note: this book ends in a huge cliffhanger that isn't going to be resolved until the book's sequel. Drove me up the wall!)

3 Favorite Books of 2007 - Part 13

Read this post to see what this is all about. For more favorites, see here. This is probably the last batch of these for 2007.

Sean Chercover, author of Big City, Bad Blood

• Ken Bruen - Priest. I don't have the words to articulate the genius that is Ken Bruen. Read this book. Read all of his books.
• Madelaine Drohan - Making a Killing: How and Why Corporations Use Armed Force to Do Business. A chilling introduction to the violent world of very big business, with case studies from Cecil Rhodes' time to today's "blood diamond" industry. Focuses on Africa, but the lessons apply world wide. Scholarly but never dry, this is essential reading.
• Jeremy Scahill - Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. You may despair for our country after reading this one, but in matters of this importance, ignorance is definitely not bliss.

Allison Brennan, author of Killing Fear

• Toni McGee Causey - Bobbie Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day. Absolutely couldn't put it down, laughed out loud, and completely enjoyed myself.
• Dana Kollman -  Never Suck A Dead Man's Hand: Curious Adventures of a CSI. I read a lot of true crime, but this is the only one I laughed with. Kollman writes about the real crime scene investigators with wit, sarcasm and honesty. I learned a lot and had fun at the same time.
• Joe Hill - Heart-Shaped Box. Original, scary, thrilling and tightly written.

Harley Jane Kozak, author of Dead Ex

• Anne LaMott - Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith
• Robert Crais - The Watchman
• And about 13 more half-finished books. Oh, and a lot of children's books. [Editor's note: I can relate to that one!]

Ralph Pezzullo, author of Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander (with Gary Berntsen)

• Rajiv Chandrasekaren - Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone. Corruption, ineptitude and severe cultural myopia of the U.S. in Iraq. And people wonder what went wrong?
• Joe Andoe - Jubilee City: A Memoir at Full Speed. Oklahoma redneck becomes successful artist. It's a bumpy road bio and a great ride.
• Jim Thompson - Recoil. Great razor-wire plot, soon to be a motion picture.

Simon Kernick, author of A Good Day to Die

• Friedrich Dürrenmatt - The Pledge
• Gillian Flynn - Sharp Objects
• Robert Harris - The Ghost

Top 5 Debuts of 2007

I've been tinkering with some lists of the best crime fiction of 2007. Since Roddy requested it, here is my list of the best debuts of the year.

Like every year it seems, 2007 was a so-so year for first novels. There were a handful that showed promise and too many that disappointed. The ones I picked, though, are all strong.

In alphabetical order:

Gordon Campbell: Missing Witness (Book of the Week selection; Chicago Sun-Times review)
Brent Ghelfi: Volk's Game (Book of the Week selection)
Philip Hawley, Jr.: Stigma (Chicago Sun-Times review)
Joe Hill: Heart-Shaped Box (Chicago Sun-Times review)
Nick Stone: Mr. Clarinet (Book of the Week selection)

Honorable mention: Jennifer Lee Carrell: Interred with Their Bones (Chicago Sun-Times review)

What's on your list?