Size Does Count.

A few weeks ago, editor and author Jason Pinter, brought up the mass market issue in his blog and here in my  blog. It hurt to read his posts -  eloquent and well reasoned as they were  - because of my own mass market findings.

I didn't need to be reminded that many mass market writers get little respect and few reviews.

I've been living it.

I've been published in every format.Four of my first five novels were published in hardcover, then trade paperback. One of those, my second novel, was a trade paperback original. Then I moved to Mira with the Dr. Morgan Snow series and my publisher decided to publish the first three books in the series as MMPB originals, one every six months - July 05, Jan 06, July 06.

I understood all the marketing reasons.

This series was my first  foray into the mystery/suspense genre. Mira wanted to introduce me fast and with some velocity. They wanted to build  up my readership and they felt they could do all of that  better with mass market for a myriad of reasons.

And they were right.

I've never sold as many books. Never received as many fan letters.

And I've never had a publisher spend so much money on promotion, marketing or advertising on any of my previous books -- right -- all those hardcovers. Mira spent more on each of these three paperbacks. And not just a few postcards and some coop more. These were real efforts that put my previous publisher's hardcover budgets to shame.

But at the same time I've never dealt with so much condescension among hardcover and trade paperback authors who think "if it's published in mass market the publisher isn't taking it seriously and doesn't  think it's a really good book." Or a "really important book."

And I never knew how bad the review situation was for mmpb originals.

For instance, in any given issue PW reviews about 65 fiction titles - of those only 4 are mass market. That's less than 10%.

The NYT and  other papers never publish mass market reviews unless it's  in round ups and then usually in genre specific columns.

Faulkner once said that the only stories worth telling are those of the human heart in conflict. That's what I've always written. And I didn't realize that the way those stories would be bound would have such a great effect on how they were received. 

I write  to  entertain yes, but also to shine some light on the dark corners of our souls in the hopes that after the last page is written, after the last page is read, both I and my readers will  have some deeper understanding of human nature. 

What I write hasn't changed as the format of the books changed.

And my readers responses to my books hasn't changed.

But for many in this industry it seemed to change.

It's not easy to pour your heart and soul into a book and then have it ignored by your peers and the press  it because of its size even when you know it's the best thing for your career to have those 100,000 plus copies out and be seen everywhere - from Target to the supermarket to the superstore and the indy M/S stores.

It's been particularly hard for me to accept the review situation with THE VENUS FIX because the research I did for this book broke my heart. The kids I interviewed were in real psychological pain. The issues in this novel matter to those kids and their parents and to adults alone or in relationships. I wanted this book to be widely read so the issues could be widely discussed. While many people have written about kids being stalked online, but no one in fiction or non fiction has looked at this side of the phenomena and asked questions about what it means.

And that brings me to a big mass market thank you.

But God bless  the independent mystery & suspense bookstores everywhere for  championing mass market originals along with other formats.  Thank heavens there are people like Mary Alice Gorman of Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont, PA, who writes  reviews of mass market originals for Mystery Scene magazine. For reviewers like  David J. Montgomery (who included me in this Sunday's Chicago Sun TImes review), Sarah Weinman, Ali Karim, The Book Bitch, Bookreporter.com, Dick Adler, The Huffington Post,and the folks at Romantic Times for overlooking the bias and picking up our books. Than goodness for the many websites and blogs who post reviews of what ever books they think are worth writing about. Without them we would be invisible.

Comments

[Simon Haynes]

I don't understand why the binding makes a difference. I can only imagine the media outlets think to themselves 'If it were any good, the publisher would have invested in hardcover'
The wonderful review you quoted above proves them wrong.
Congratulations.

[MJ]

Simon - I edited the post to make that clearer, thanks for the comment.

[Jason Pinter]

This is a wonderful and heartfelt post, MJ. The literary industry is certainly guilty of elitism to the extreme, which is something Doug Preston touched on a ThrillerFest as well.

To give you an idea of how ridiculous reviewing can be, Publishers Weekly even ran a review of the self-published IF I KNEW THEN by Amy Fisher. Yes, THAT Amy Fisher. And they even had the audacity to call it "irresistable" and "engrossing."

[Allison Brennan]

MJ, fabulous post. I couldn't agree more. You're a phenominal writer in any format. I know I'd never be at the place I am right now if I had been released in h/c. When and if I ever move into another format, the primary question I'm going to ask is: is this the right time in my career for this move? I have no problem staying in mm as long as I need to be, or publishing in both formats--reviews or no reviews.

[Lynn Emery]

God Bless all the online sites that provide low cost promo opportunities. And don't forget AuthorBuzz. Somehow I had the idea that the service only buzzed hardcover or trade-sized releases. I was happy to learn that wasn't the case

[sanctimonious]

Who needs the NY Times when The Venus Fix has been reviewed and you've been interviewed by that guy at Backspace? (www.bksp.org)
What more could a girl ask for?

[PJ Parrish]

MJ,
Just finished "Delilah Complex" (yeah, I know, I'm way behind) and wanted to say that I think there's better writing and more heart in that PBO book than nine-tenths of the hardcover stuff I have read this year (which includes some real critical pets that just left me cold). My sister and I often talk about the lack of emotion in crime fiction today -- the unwillingness of an author to open a vein and write movingly about the real effects of crime, to let their protags feel something, ANYTHING. I'm sick to death of ersatz Spillane, Chandler, Ludlam, you name it. Soldier on, girl.

[T]

Here, here (what PJ Parrish said)! Literary elitism really bothers me. It's based on silly standards and ignores the fact that a good story is simply that: a good story. Regardless how it's bound. Regardless where you buy it. Regardless whether it's supposed to be "literary" or "commercial." Enough already.

[Francis Ellen]

I find it astonishing that you would care. All that matters is being read by regular people. (No?)

I'm self-published; the kind of writer that everyone gets to roll their eyes at.

I wrote a novel (The Samplist) I was sure had 'mass market' potential. It was rejected by fourteen publishers; some liked it but...

Anyway, I edited and typeset the thing and got it printed up (massive and difficult job).

I got reviewed by tons of places: The Guardian, The Arts Show on BBC Radio, Scotland on Sunday, The Times Literary Supplement, Classic FM Magazine, The Big Issue, The List, The BBC Music Magazine, The Scotsman, The British Science Fiction Association (it's not science fiction) and many more. (The New Scientist offered a review after asking for two copies but then they bumped me) And, in truth, outside of a few bitchy early reviews by writers living in my area (who twigged it was by a self-regarding sad-sack); the ink was okay to very good.

Recently I had another go at trying to find a publisher for it (with a couple of other pieces I'm working on) and more than one publisher told me that anything that was reviewed in the TLS was certainly not commercial, and therefore they were not interested in even looking at it.

I have to say that my most treasured reviews have come from regular readers who kindly took the time to tell me of their enjoyment. It's actually written for people who normally watch telly for entertainment. I thought I was 'creating' something 'important' in that I was writing about esoteric subjects in a way that everyone could understand (and enjoy). I thought I was translating leading-edge computing without the image of spotty kids typing fast. I though I was spilling the beans about the way classical music is created without resorting to dinner suits and coughing during movements. I thought I was writing about how genius is worshipped from afar and cut down at close range. I thought I was writing about the seed of all religion; but with a few fart jokes thrown in.

It is so strange to me that I didn't even know what literary fiction was and now I'm apparently barred from 'proper' publication because my novel is too 'high-brow' (by inference). And as I'm not an arts council scrounger I can't even get help from 'the other side'.

So I have a double-whammy; nobody wants to publish 'literary fiction' by an unknown and I've probably saturated the market anyway; even though I never managed to get the thing into more than twenty shops.

But I write entertainments for ordinary people (such as myself). I don't even believe literary fiction exists; it is itself a fiction, a shield, a lie, a delusion, it's just something people hide behind when they want to look clever or offer as an excuse for tedium.

There are parts of my body I'd gladly have amputated to swap places with you. I agree entirely; the review business is ludicrous; it is controlled by a bunch of pseudo-intellectuals who cannot tell quality writing from their own reflections.

But all that matters... all that really matters is that people read your books and enjoy them. (And you get to make a living writing fiction.)

In time, things will change. In the meantime you get to entertain hundreds of thousands of people.

When I was writing my novel I thought I'd be accused of writing like a kid; debasing things above my head. Instead I've been accused of saying 'something important' by the TLS; and a lot of good it's done me.

The first truly self-published novel reviewed by the TLS in a hundred years and it might as well be the mark of the beast.

And don't forget that most reviewers skim; they are not true readers. Do they ever get lost in a novel the way your readers get lost in yours? That is the ultimate accolade.

The internet certainly will change everything but it will take time. As the paper media weakens so will the condescending attitudes that dominate the whole review business.

[MJ]

My post wasn't about the importance of readers vs reviewrs or the need for a writer to focus on the readers. Of course readers are the ultimate goal and all that matters but blog isn't about writing alone - its about marketing and advertising of books - so the post is about a prejudice that exists that I wanted to discuss.

Do I care more about readers or reviews?

Its not the right question.

Readers only find out about books via a few channels. Reviews being one of them. If my books get more reviews, more readers will be exposed to them. Just putting them on a shelf won't sell them.

That's why I care.

[Francis Ellen]

I wasn't simply making a point about reviewers versus readers. Your post was about the lack of 'respect and reviews' afforded the mass market writer and the 'condescension among hardcover and trade paperback authors'. You said: 'have it ignored by your peers and the press... even when you know it's the best thing for your career to have those 100,000 plus copies out and be seen everywhere'.

I can't see anywhere in your post where you're saying anything other than 'Why won't people review me? Just because of the format?'

Prejudice is never a one-way street. Was I unclear about that in my post? If I've been turned down, sight unseen, on the strength of a TLS review by more than one source then there's some prejudice that's really hurting.

And still; all that matters is being read by regular people. I have to believe that in the absence of such reviews for your work you are over-estimating their importance to sales. Although I just re-read you post and I don't see anything about advertising or marketing in it (outside of mentioning that your publisher spends a fortune doing so). It seemed to me that you were complaining about lack of professional respect. I agree with you absolutely on that score, why would you then pretend that's not what's getting under your skin?

How many books do you think a Guardian or TLS review would sell? Advertising sells books. Reviews are not good advertising. It may seem like that to someone who sells loads of books but doesn't get 'respect' but reviews are for sticking on the cover. I can't remember a single time I bought a book on the strength of a review I'd read, and I don't know a single reader of mine who bought my novel on the strength of a review. People want to read a book that they hear others talking to each other about. They want to read a book that seems somehow familiar (ergo advertising money).

Remember that the type of person who reads the TLS has a couple of thousand geniuses they'd read before they'd read me or indeed, even you. I doubt I got a single sale out any of my reviews.

You're making the assumption that more reviews will sell more books?

You think you've suffered condescension from other authors? Try being self-published. The only thing my reviews have done is make some other authors think twice before they trash me. I thought I had an interesting tale to add here but I get told I've misread the original post.

Tell the truth: When you read the words 'self-published' what did you think? In your reply to my post all you did was tell me that you wanted to discuss something else. I had misinterpreted your post? But now I've read it three times and still it says 'people don't show me enough respect'. I may not be the best writer in the world but I can read.

Caring about readers versus reviewers is indeed the right question and when a publisher spends big money making sure that there are readers then writers will probably turn to things fanciful such as 'Am I not saying something important too’?

Perhaps I should have said: 'Indeed you are a great, undiscovered genius. And now that you have a million thick readers it's time to get some clever ones.'

I think your attitude is an insult to your readers. You should try to find a little humility and be thankful for what you've got.

I expect your readers will think me ungracious to come onto your blog so. But if you want to discuss something then why not simply discuss it? Did my point not agree with your world view?

Telling me what your post was about was more than a little condescending, don't you think?

[Francis Ellen]

I suppose I should have said try being self-published with posh reviews. Reviews are a waste of time. You're missing nothing.

[MJ]

I was self published. It's how I got my start. So the preaching won't work with me:) I now all about it and there's not much I don't know about being dissed by my peers.

And you are wrong about reviews selling books. They do. They are not all that do. But they do. And they influcence other reviewers and the more books get attention the more they sell.

If you go back and read more of this blog, you'll see lots of evidence to that. Nothing sells a book but exposure. There are over 100,000 books published a year. A reader needs to hear about them, see them, know about them. Advertising does that, reviews do that, mentions on blogs do that, radio interviews do that, word of mouth does that.

But word of mouth doesn't exist in a vacum. A book can't get word of mouth without someone reading it in the first place.

And while I treasure each reader I have more than I can say, I still want more of them That's what I wrote about it the peice. Its right there in the middle.

[Francis Ellen]

I apologize for being dumb. I read it again and still it says "I want to be reviewed by the literati. I'm saying important things too."

There's nothing wrong with that desire.

Yes, of course, exposure, of course. But having a ton of money invested in you is doing the trick.

There are precedents in the music industry that suggest that sometimes too many people talking about something in a certain way can make it so 'untrendy' as to kill it.

You have every right to expect better review coverage but be careful what you wish for. It sounds to me like your marketing people have everything in hand.

Having a bunch of upper-middle class nitwits using big words to poke fun at you is not necessarily going to be helpful in garnering more readers (and we both know that that's what they would do; any praise would be grudged, or at least involve too much surprise).

[Douglas Clegg]

Francis,

I feel like you're writing at cross-purpose here -- the reviews M.J's speaking of are not necessarily written by literary, snooty reviewers. They review commercial fiction all the time.

They just review more hardcovers than they do mass market paperbacks.

I am assuming from your note that you're in the U.K. The tenor of reviews may be very different over there. Here, a lot of commercial fiction is well-reviewed and lauded.

And even a bad review can help a novel, because it created a place for those who don't read the review just to see the title and author name and possibly the book cover.

I may be mistaken, but what it sounds like you may be discussing the idea that it's not worth getting reviewed at all. That's a very different topic.

I think you were fortunate to get those reviews, and with a bit of luck it might have helped your book reach a wider audience or be republished by another publisher for better distribution.

That fact that it did not is not the fault of having many reviews, mostly good, as you mentioned. It's just the luck of the draw.

Still, better to have seven or eight good reviews out there for the chance of a wider readership and more awareness among booksellers, than to not have that shot simply because mass market paperbacks here in the U.S. are not often reviewed.

I think as a once-self-published writer, M.J. no doubt understands the difficulty of getting reviewed in mainstream publications enough to see how great an accomplishment you had with your book. It's amazing to me that it was so much-reviewed -- here in the U.S. it's nearly impossible to get that kind of coverage for a self-published novel. It can be done, but it's got to be as difficult as finding a top publisher for a novel in the first place.

So, congratulations on the recognition those reviewers gave your book.

But the problem here in the U.S. that M.J. Rose mentions is pervasive. The format of the cover does determine the possibilities of additional reviews, rather than the seriousness or innovation or uniqueness of the fiction itself.

In my own experience, in the past two years I've had three mass market paperbacks here in the U.S. and two hardcovers. Both hardcovers (one from a huge publisher and one from a very small one) were reviewed in the Library Journal, Publisher's Weekly, and Booklist, as well as several other places. The three paperbacks? One of them was reviewed in Publisher's Weekly, and I was fortunate to get that one review (a starred review no less), but that was it for any professionally-published review media.

The other side to this is that so few hardcover and trade paperback novels are distributed -- as opposed to the mass market rack-sized paperbacks -- that of course, publishers and booksellers want those books to get attention in the review media.

I think the feeling is that mass market paperbacks do not need reviews to sell them by comparison.

But I still think a book should not be judged by its cover -- nor by the material of that cover.

Francis - I apologize if I've misunderstood the point you're making here. It is a huge accomplishment, at least from my perspective, that a self-published novel received so many reviews from such lofty sources. It can't hurt!

[Francis Ellen]

Douglas, I fully understand the snobbery associated, in this case, with a format. It is exactly like the snobbery associated with so many things in this crazy industry.

There is a market hungry for readable fiction but we who endeavour to write such fiction have to kill ourselves just to get noticed while the 'blessed' seem to attract no end of media attention.

Indeed, I believe it is just as hard to get reviewed in the U.K. as it is in the U.S.

Ms. Rose's post was the same plea I've heard from many writers. All she wants is to be considered, but the industry pre-judges her fiction unseen, based on the size of the page.

The point I was trying to make is that prejudice lies in wait at every juncture. One would think that a writer with a huge following and the positive backing of her publisher had arrived in the promised land but still the industry tries to keep her on the outside.

It's really a matter of scale. I'm sure she's certain that, given some decent review coverage, she could be elevated into the super league of writers, and why not?

I expect this will happen anyway as it appears that nothing can hold her back (excuse me for talking about you on your own blog Ms. Rose). But I can't figure why the industry has to make it such a fight.

My own point here was that without proper distribution, a proper imprint, and the resources to lever review coverage, reviews are meaningless; in the real world of sales, that is, and they pale into insignificance compared to actual marketing money and clout.

My impressions from Ms. Rose's post were that she simply wanted a level playing field on the review front. And indeed I could not agree more. I am sick and tired of feigned seriousness being mistaken for quality. Now they deign to review commercial fiction but still there are 'limits'.

In the U.K there seems to be a tiny pool of writers who were accorded the gold ring for reasons unknown. Although as you say, I can't complain about the coverage I got. And I can explain how it happened; it might be of interest to this blog.

If a novel were the only thing I had I would never have even tried to enter this industry. I've made a living from writing for around fourteen years (give or take). I can write but I knew that nobody would care about that. My novel (The Samplist) is about a bunch of music students who create a counterfeit virtuoso in pure software.

Big deal.

So what I did was create the virtual musician in real life. I created the music created by a character who, in turn, was created by the fictional characters in the novel. You can hear some of the music on my crappy web site.

This is the 'story' I 'sold' to review editors. Always my plan has been to somehow rise from the slush and this seemed like a good idea. The reactions I was getting from readers and the reviews (which improved significantly after the Times Literary Supplement afforded the 'hallmark of literature' to my novel) were all part of my plan. I had no idea that a TLS review would have a sting in the tail.

I thought that a book (which is pretty darn good and a very easy read, by the way) that came with a dozen or so major reviews to be plumped onto the back cover, plus actual computer-generated classical music, indistinguishable from real acoustic music (Chopin, Bach etc) that could be easily promoted on radio, television and the press (hell, a fictional character who plays music in real life!) would be a publisher's dream. And indeed I had a few of them who really liked the book.

But I have not been able to get more than one 'publisher' at any company interested. My novel seems to attract very strong reactions, and while I still can't help believing that this is a good thing, it has not produced any offers. I did have two offers from agents but as yet no publishing deal and nothing in sight either.

I'm working on a second and on a non-fiction piece on self-publishing; not the usual, you can do it too fantasy, this is a book about the reality of self-publishing, as it currently stands in the U.K.

You say it's as hard to get reviews in the U.S. as it is to find a publisher. Well, now you know how I did it. It wasn't a crap shoot but luck was certainly involved. I've sold hundreds of books but I don't have any money to market it and even if I did I wouldn't know what to do anyway.

My point is that, with the book in only around twenty stores at its peak, and no local support at all, these numbers could be scaled easily into a successful release.

I used to live in the U.S. and I wish I still did for I'm sure that there are publishers with enough commercial acumen to exploit the reviews (and music) of The Samplist.

It seems that the industry demands that a writer produce two, three, four books before they look at an unknown as a potential source of revenues. And it seems that even after a writer has done everything necessary to satisfy these demands, still there are ridiculous snobberies laying in wait for even the most successful of writers.

Thank you for your gracious post. I hope my experiences related here might be of use and that a publisher snaps up The Samplist before the weekend (and that the legion of pigs flying past my window at this very moment wipe the smirks off their faces.)

[MJ]

Francis, your book sounds fascinating as does your publishing story. I can't comment on why you didn't get a sale - I don't know enought about England. Did you get an agent? How many houses did you/she submit to?

And thanks to you and Doug for for all the clarification.

Watch this blog next week. I'm going to write about some other sides of these issues.

[Francis Ellen]

M.J. I submitted (after self-publishing - I did not submit to any publishers before self-publishing) to fourteen major imprints in the U.K.

I had interest from six, and three were enthusiastic but it went no further. The reasons given ranged from inability to get consensus to the 'world of music' being too 'strange' for readers (that was my favourite).

I had agenting offers from an agent at Georgina Capel (on the strength of a lovely girl in the office who snatched it off a desk, read it and loved it, then championed it). However, for reasons too tedious to go into I ended up going with a much smaller agency who also made an offer at the same time.

This is probably another of the many mistakes I made. After self-publishing, getting reviews, and getting the novel in front of a few publishers I only called four agents and got offers from two.

My arrogance led me to believe that everything was going according to plan and that all I had to do now was wait for the offer to materialize. After all, the novel was perfect for a cinema or television treatment (in fact, I had orginally written it as a script but did not even send it off as a previous script of mine had been bandied about by a few production companies but as an unknown nobody would take a risk), and it had the music. I assumed that a publishing house would have an 'in' with radio and once people actually heard 'Yang Li' play piano or the other characters play then it would be easy to set up a virtuous circle. I even had three composers, one of whom has done Hollywoord movies, who wanted to 'pour' themselves into Yang Li. The possibility even exists for an 'eternal musician' populated by hundreds or even thousands of musicians. (I have worked a little in computer music and had, at the time, access to leading edge technologies.)

I know now that I should probably have chased more agents until I got one who believed in my writing as much as the girl at Capel (she was not yet an agent; had she been an agent I would certainly have gone with her - they are a powerful agency and she had tremendous enthusiasm for the novel).

[JRSM]

I think part of the problem here is the inherent physical ugliness of most MMPBs (I'm not talking about your work here, just in general) - the crappy paper, the hideous cover art, the noisy author/title text. When I was reviewing, and I had umpteen books to review, I tended to avoid the books that looked horrible (and I admit this is a failing, but I think it's a common one). I think this is a bigger problem in the US publishing world. For example, your own books in larger format paperback in the UK/Commonwealth publishing market are lovely to look at. It's also true that, in general, UK/C MMPBs are slightly less ugly than US MMPBs (not that that's saying much).