 |
The Mystery Company Phone: 317-705-9711 |
Use the box to the right to search our inventory. No shipping charge on all US orders! |
News and comment
Many of my comments that appear here were posted before I began blogging. You can find some of my more recent musings on my blog. What I've started doing here in 2009 is adding a collection of quotes about independent bookselling.
February 3, 2009
Bill Schubart on Vermont Public Radio:
"Small businesses like bookstores define and enrich a healthy community," he said. "I know because my town of Hinesburg just got one and it's changing my book-buying habits."
"The buying of a book is a rich allegory about community," Schubart continued. "Your local bookstore carries what it believes will be of interest to the community it serves. It hires local people and pays local rent and taxes. The staff reads and can talk about the books they sell. They host community events and book clubs and spend time with children learning to read. They will special order books to meet the diverse interests of their patrons. They may charge more for the books they stock but they make up for it with service.
"Reading, like the preparing and serving of fresh local food, enjoying artful conversation over a glass of wine, or just strolling in a vibrant downtown should be savored slowly. I'm willing to pay a small premium to sustain my community."
January 9, 2009
We ran across this comment from The Guardian (London), a reaction to the news that Murder One, London's mystery bookshop, is closing:
"These kinds of shops are facing a long, bloody battle -- and one which, without significant reinforcements, they are likely to lose. As we hear of the travesty of another brilliant independent going down, we'll mourn the loss, wring our hands and damn Amazon and the supermarkets and Waterstone's. Yet perhaps the most important detail we'll probably keep under wraps: the last time we actually spent any money there. Murder One closing its doors for the final time is undoubtedly a .38 shell for independent bookshops, but whether it's body blow or a warning shot all depends upon us, the consumers. No one, no matter how iconic or established, can exist on fond memories alone: just ask Woolworths. Use these shops now, because it doesn't take a master sleuth to deduce what will happen if we don't." -- Stuart Evers
August 12, 2008
I responded to this question on the Sisters in Crime discussion list "Why don't readers attend author events?" with this post, which I'm reprinting here.
Why don't readers attend author events?
One reason readers don't attend author events is that events are often scheduled in unsuitable venues.
My store is a small one; our dollar volume of business with the big publishers is too low for any of them to take us seriously when it comes to scheduling events. But we are a great venue for author visits, able to draw good crowds in most all cases. Yes, we are sometimes disappointed with turnouts -- as is any store -- but we generally do well, with a mix of reasonably big names, interesting newcomers and local favorites who return for each new book. (One of the keys to our success is that we work hard to maintain a good mix.)
There are three things that are going wrong in booking events.
Publishers don't have field reps anyone, so very few companies call on us in person. They don't have the direct experience of standing in the store, seeing how we promote, actually attending an event to see how we stage them and how our customers interact with our guests, etc. That's a problem for smaller stores everywhere. Publishers don't have to visit a Barnes & Noble to know what they're going to get (for better and for worse), but it would help to actually see most independents, something that they don't do without field reps.
Publishers use events to reward stores (esp. chains) who do big overall business with the companies rather than looking at stores that excel in a particular genre. We are easily the best venue in central Indiana for mystery and suspense titles, supporting our guests not just for the hour or two they're in the store, but continuing to display and promote their titles for days and weeks afterwards. We have a great relationship with mystery lovers in our region, including an email list and a mailed newsletter on paper that we use to promote our guests' work. But big publishers have a better relationship with the big chains. (Publishers' and writers' interests coincide in many ways, but booking events isn't necessarily one of them.)
Publishers book events based on habit rather than trying out new locations. Central Indiana basically isn't on the radar for most big author tours. We consistently see writers booked into Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois -- the states all around us -- but these tours almost invariably skip over Indiana. It's as if we're a black hole in the middle of this circle of states, and tour bookers can't find us. Part of my motivation in bringing Bouchercon 2009 here to Indianapolis is to change this dynamic; so far, though, I'm not seeing the benefit. I know that the same big companies that are ignoring me now are going to want to see their authors "featured" at Bouchercon, but, frankly, my store needs the help NOW.
(One other reason tours shun central Indiana is that local media are generally not good at covering author visits, and publishers like to see some media tied in to events. On this, I actually agree with and understand the publishers' point of view. We work hard to get local media interested in our guests, but we've hard remarkably little success.)
Fortunately, there are a lots of writers whom we've been able to work with directly to set up events. We're grateful to each and every writer who gives us an opportunity to do an event. Publishers may not recognize the value of what we do, but writers certainly do.
This is a serious issue for us, and for a lot of other smaller stores. Events make a big difference -- they can be the difference between survival and closing. I think that most big publishers know this. The fact that they're avoiding us tells you something about their vision of the business. The fact that writers embrace us tells you something about their hopes too.
November 18, 2004
Indiana and the mystery genre
When Moni and I started planning our first holiday party last year, we knew that we wanted the event to celebrate our state's mystery writers. No one automatically thinks of Indiana has a hotbed of crime writing, but in fact the state's role in the genre is deeper and more significant that we might at first realize. We don't always remember that Rex Stout, creator of Nero Wolfe and one of our genre's greats, was born in Noblesville, Indiana, in 1886. Or that Indianapolis-based Bobbs Merrill was the original publisher of Earl Derr Biggers' Charlie Chan mysteries (beginning in 1925) and of John Dunning (in 1975), among many others. Or that, as Marv Lachman reminds us in his reference book on THE AMERICAN REGIONAL MYSTERY, Michael Z. Lewin and his Indianapolis-based Albert Samson novels in the early 1970s were among the first mysteries to be set in the Heartland; these books played an important role in drawing the genre away from the coasts and the traditional New York and Los Angeles settings.
Because there aren't a lot of opportunities for the local literary community to gather -- something that we've been working to change -- it's not always obvious how big, vibrant and accomplished our state's authors truly are. From the remarkable forty year career of Roberta Gellis, to the this year's three first novelists -- Dick Cady, Phil Dunlap and Michael Koryta -- and everyone in between -- we are hosting a truly impressive group of writers, folk you'll enjoy meeting and whose books you'll enjoy.
Click here for more information about our holiday party guests.
June 17, 2004
Trust
After a while in this business -- as in any other area -- the most important thing you learn is whom you can trust. These days, it seems like everything is about hype. What we try to do is cut through the noise and help you find books you'll enjoy. One thing that even publishers themselves often overlook is the role and reputation of the publisher: how we perceive the company name on the book and how it may encourage us to (or dissuade us from) buying a particular book.
Since we announced this week's event -- with authors Judy Clemens and Beverle Graves Myers on Saturday, June 19 at 1 pm -- we've been billing it as "The Poisend Pen Posse rides into town," and telling you that these writers are published by The Poisoned Pen Press. What we haven't yet had a chance to tell you is why you should care that they are Poisoned Pen Press authors.
Kit Ehrman, who was originally scheduled to be here with Clemens and Myers, is ill and unable to join us. But everything I say here applies to her as well -- and we hope that you'll get a look at Kit's books too when you come in to meet the others.)
The Poisoned Pen Press was founded by Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen bookshop in Scottsdale, Arizona -- perhaps the top independent mystery bookshop in the world. Barbara "sees consolidations in the publishing industry as a terrible threat to cultural diversity and to the survival of the independent bookstore -- ultimately becoming a subtle form of censorship. Besides, she wants to sell books she likes." (You can find more of Barbara's words at: www.poisonedpenpress.com/aboutus/index.php.)
So Poisoned Pen Press starts out as refelecting the tastes of a professional who's dedicated to the field. While I can't say that I've liked every single Poisoned Pen title that I've read, I can always see some merit in what they're doing. And I never believe that any of their books are published just for marketing reasons. This is a company that really does publish books because they like them. You can't say that about any of the big New York companies -- even the ones that we admire. I trust Poisoned Pen Press in a way that I trust few other publishers.
What's even more remarkable, though, is that Poisoned Pen has dedicated itself to publishing new writers, so their task is herculean: sifting through hundreds of raw submissions to find the gems worth publishing. They're doing a remarkable job.
Of course you should read Judy Clemens and Kit Ehrman and Beverle Graves Myers for their own merits -- and they are considerable. Here's how Booklist describes Clemens' first novel, TILL THE COWS COME HOME:
"She's smart. She's tough. She's sexy. She's a dairy farmer? However incongruous Stella Crown's occupation may seem in conjunction with her attributes, Clemens makes her not only believable but admirable. Left alone when her parents died, Stella runs the family's Pennsylvania dairy farm with help from her hired hand and second father, Howie. It's a hard life, and Clemens' vivid portrayal of the lot of the small farmer is eye-opening and disturbing. But Stella's troubles go beyond the everyday when it becomes clear that someone is sabotaging her. And, even more seriously, children are falling ill with a strange virus -- one young boy is already dead. Stella deals with dead cows, arson, a missing dog, and a sick young farmhand while also attempting to sort out her love life. Alternately a Harley-riding, tough farm girl and a kindhearted, vulnerable woman, Stella makes an endearing heroine in a promising first novel."
And here's Publishers Weekly's review of Myers' INTERRUPTED ARIA:
"Myers's absorbing first novel, a historical set in 18th-century Italy, introduces a most unusual hero, Tito Amato, who was sold as a child to be castrated and taught to be an opera singer. In late 1731, Tito and fellow castrato Felice Ravello leave Naples for Tito's native Venice to sing with an opera company owned by a wealthy and powerful family. Myers recreates the opera seria of the time in fascinating detail, from the special stage effects to the vocal pyrotechnics. All Venetians attended the opera and sang the principal arias as popular songs; the narrative was less important and came primarily in spoken recitatifs. During one performance, the prima donna is poisoned, and Felice, who's been working as an instrumentalist since his voice became unstable, is jailed as the chief suspect. Tito is determined to clear his friend and scours the Republic of Venice for evidence of his innocence. Readers familiar with Venice will delight in following Tito through the calli and campi where masked revelers celebrate the Carnivale. (One patrician lady uses a seduction technique that might be useful today.) The complicated plot has twists enough for a 19th-century opera, but Myers neatly ties all the pieces together by the end."
And here's The New York Times' review of Ehrman's DEAD MAN'S TOUCH, her second Steve Cline novel:
"Hidden away from the glittering stage of thoroughbred racing, with its flashing silks and gleaming horseflesh, is a place they call 'the backside.' In her second stable mystery, DEAD MAN'S TOUCH, Kit Ehrman refers to this behind-the-scenes area -- where trainers, grooms, barn managers and stable hands minister around the clock to the needs of their high-strung charges -- as 'a world unto itself.' Ehrman, who has worked at show barns and breeding farms, strikes a solid claim to this gritty territory with another heels-up thriller that takes up where Dick Francis left off. In the barn. Steve Cline, the young stable hand who made such a strong and sympathetic hero in AT RISK, searches out the father he never knew, a thoroughbred trainer at a Maryland racetrack, and signs on as a 'hot-walker,' a lowly exercise worker, when he discovers that someone has been fixing races by tampering with his father's horses. In true Francis tradition, Steve takes plenty of physical punishment as a sleuth. But his undercover role also gives him the inside track on life as it's lived on the backside, a grueling, even squalid existence that pays off in the chance to get close to the magnificent animals that have more character and heart than the two-footed fools who view them as a commodity."
We can recommend these books because we think you're going to enjoy them. But we also want you to know that when you're buying a Poisoned Pen Press book, you're making an investment in the future of the mystery genre. You're supporting a company that has your best interests as mystery readers at heart.
For more information about our guests on Saturday, visit their websites"
Judy Clemens: www.judyclemens.com
Beverle Graves Myers: www.beverlegravesmyers.com
Feburary 5, 2004
What's wrong with the Edgar Award
This week's announcement of the Edgar Award nominees has caused the usual amount of consternation. "How could xxxxxx be left off?"
The Edgars are given by the Mystery Writers of America, and they are our genre's most prominent award. For the most part, the hardworking MWA committees that choose the nominees and the winners pick reasonably good books. (The glaring exception is Robert Clark's MR. WHITE'S CONFESSION a few years back -- not only a dreadful, dull book but one that's hard to fit into even the broadest definition of the mystery story.)
When you scan through the list of nominees in the best novel, best first novel and best paperback original categories, which I've listed below, I know that you'll draw your own conclusions. For comparison purposes, I've again listed for you this year's Dilys Award nominees. I believe the Dilys to be the most credible of awards, not only because as a member of the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association I'm a (small) part of the process but because this award best reflects the genre as we know it. (You won't find a MR. WHITE'S CONFESSION among the IMBA choices.)
In the best novel category, note that Michael Connelly has recused himself. In light of the fact that he's the current president of the Mystery Writers of America, he asked that his book not be submitted for consideration -- but somehow it was submitted anyway. I applaud Connelly's ethics and his desire to avoid the appearance of impropriety. LOST LIGHT was, on the other hand, one of my favorite novels of 2003.
It's easy to think of books that aren't on the list but -- we think -- should be. I'm especially disappointed that some of the really good first novels that I discovered last year didn't make the cut: O ARTFUL DEATH by Sarah Stewart Taylor, CONFESSIONS OF A DEATHMAIDEN by Ruth Franciso and BUZZ MONKEY by Sam Hill. And I'd love to have a discussion about Jacqueline Winspear's MAISIE DOBBS -- the one book that appears on both the Dilys and the Edgar lists -- with a few more people who've read it. It's a fascinating and extraordinarily likable book, with an intriguing protagonist that we're bound to love. But it's also one of the most weirdly structured "mystery" novels I've read, and I have serious reservations about the way the book ends (that I can't detail without giving everything away). If you read this book, please be sure to let me know what you think about it.
But you won't spot the main problem with the Edgars from just looking at this year's nominees. Well, maybe you will. Where are the cozies -- traditional whodunits? These are the books that we sell the most of and, therefore, I'm guessing you read the most of. For whatever reason, the Mystery Writers of America have turned their backs on the books that are most representative of the genre. Isn't a little odd the Julia Spenser-Fleming's fabulous first novel, IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER, can win every other major award for which it's eligible (the Anthony, Agatha, Barry and the Dilys) -- and yet not even be nominated for the Edgar?
When people who've worked on an Edgar committee talk about the work, they emphasize how fair they try to be, how the panels are diverse, etc. Yet year after year, they pick books that -- while for the most part admirable -- don't necessarily reflect the mainstream of the genre. Writers talk about how much the Edgar means because it's awarded by their peers. You have to wonder how writers of cozy mysteries feel year in and year out about the way their peers view their work.
Incidentally, there's an article in the new issue of The Drood Review on the Edgar Awards process. You don't have to take my word for how interesting this article is. On his blog (www.edgorman.com/edsplacearchive-04-jan.html), Ed Gorman writes: "I've never seen the awards process laid out with such honesty, clarity, even-handedness and insight." Copies of this issue are available now in the store.
2004 EDGAR AWARD NOMINEES
BEST NOVEL
The Guards by Ken Bruen
Lost Light by Michael Connelly
Out by Natsuo Kirino
Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Note: Michael Connelly has withdrawn LOST LIGHT from consideration.
BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
12 Bliss Street by Martha Conway
Offer of Proof by Robert Heilbrun
Night of the Dance by James Hime
Death of a Nationalist by Rebecca Pawel
The Bridge of Sighs by Olen Steinhauer
BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
Cut and Run by Jeff Abbott
The Last Witness by Joel Goldman
Wisdom of the Bones by Christopher Hyde
Southland by Nina Revoyr
Find Me Again by Sylvia Maultash Warsh
BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
Mystery Women, Volume 3 by Colleen Barnett
Amelia Peabody's Egypt: A Compendium edited by Elizabeth Peters and Kristen Whitbread
Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light by Patrick McGilligan
The American Police Novel: A History by Leroy Lad Panek
Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith by Andrew Wilson
2004 DILYS AWARD NOMINEES
Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon by Donna Andrews
The Sixth Lamentation by William Brodrick
Lost In a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
Monkeewrench by P.J. Tracy
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
June 19, 2003
Harry Potter and the Mania that Grips Us All
The cool thing is that someone would want to steal it.
You probably saw the story on the front page of yesterday's Indianapolis Star (www.indystar.com/print/articles/3/051545-7493-010.html). Someone in Britain made off with a truckload of HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. Now I'm not condoning theft, which is obviously wrong. But I am delighted that it's a book -- not a movie, not a song, not a television show, not a video game, but an actual book -- that's captured not just our imagination but the attention of the world as well. Can you remember a week when the Star -- which in the three years I've been reading it has paid remarkably little attention to books -- has featured this much book coverage?
There's a wonderful comic science fiction thriller out right now called THE EYRE AFFAIR, which we've been recommending highly and has become one of our early bestsellers. In this novel, Jasper Fforde conjures up an alternate universe in which literature is really really important, a part of everyone's daily life. It's a lovely and endearing vision, and you think it's entirely fanciful until you see how we are all caught up in Harry Potter mania.
Whether or not you're a fan of Harry Potter, how can you not enjoy what's going on right now? Think of all the conventional wisdom myths that Harry Potter is shattering: that interest in reading is confined to just a small percentage of the population, that kids will chose video games over books, that kids (and many adults, for that matter) have too short attention span to read a 700+ page book, that a kid's book will only be read by kids, etc. False, false, false and false!
Harry Potter demonstrates for the world something that those of us for whom reading is at the heart of our lives have known all along: there's nothing like a good story, well told. It's that simple. This weekend, we are of course celebrating the release of HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. But what we're really celebrating is the joy that books bring to our lives.
Return to The Mystery Company homepage Contents of this website are copyright (c) 2003-9 by The Mystery Company |