For my purposes, the tour ends when I arrive home tomorrow. I still have events and interviews through April 23, but nothing that will take me away from home, overnight.
I’ve said repeatedly this past month that I don’t believe in complaining about touring. A homebody by nature, I prefer my own bed, my own routines. But this isn’t a hardtime gig. This leg has been especially easy, with no early morning wake-up calls and an astonishing number of friends along the way. I’ve been able to work and exercise, and if I haven’t always done the right thing, eating-wise, that’s been more by choice than circumstance.
I never want to lose sight of the fact that touring is a privilege and an opportunity, and not just because fewer writers go on extensive tours. Meeting readers face-to-face is a great and humbling thing. Last night, I was asked a question I don’t think I’ve ever been asked before about the writing life. “What do you like least?”
I had to think about that and finally came up with: My innate limitations. For a novelist in the early 21st century, the heights of achievement in literature are so very high that I’m not sure I can see the pinnacle from where I stand. Homer, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Edith Wharton, Theodore Dreiser — it has to be a really clear day for me to glimpse the soles of their shoes and, even then, I’ll need a powerful telescope. I’m reading Meg Wolitzer’s THE 10-YEAR NAP and marveling at word choices, how the story moves, the audacity of her imagination in places. I’m not exactly envious — although I wouldn’t mind if Jennifer Egan blurbed me one day — but I’m curious, alert, engaged, trying to figure out how she does what she does.
Yesterday, when I checked out Sandra Parshall’s piece on envy over at the blog Poe’s Deadly Daughters, recommended in yesterday’s comments, I noticed that the commenters worked from the assumption bestseller = bad. Hey! There also seemed to be several people who believed that people start to phone it in after reaching a certain sales mark. Again — hey!
True, there is the famous story about Harold Robbins, who reportedly said his readers wouldn’t notice that his characters changed named midway through a book. (Not sure I trust this story, by the way.) But most of the writers I know push forward, setting new goals for themselves, seldom satisfied. Some set commercial goals, some set critical ones, but whatever they’re striving for, new goals pop up again. It’s like the army that Jason had to face in the Golden Fleece.
I’ve never felt more pressure this year, with a Tess Monaghan book following on the heels of WHAT THE DEAD KNOW. The fact is, it was unthinkable to me even a few months ago that ANOTHER THING TO FALL could hit the NYT list at any slot, for any amount of time. And I’m stunned that WTDK has managed three weeks on the mass market list. (It will be #19 again on April 13.)
As I’ve also said several times this week — the author tour is not a homecoming parade, in which the writer throws kisses from the back of a convertible. It’s about the readers, booksellers, librarians. I’m not taking a victory lap around the country here. I’m the sales rep from a satellite office, checking in with my bosses. Thanks for not firing me.
I get nervous around best-seller lists because they are filled with “popular” books. I’ve tried them, lots of them, and they oh-so-don’t-work-for-me. However (big however here) there ARE authors who, thank the gods, make the lists who can write. It’s because of the Childs and the Lippmans and the Hillermans and Whites that I even bother <i>looking</i> at the best seller lists, because sometimes a really good book gets listed. Huzzah, sez I.
I admit that whenever I’ve tried a new author whose book made it onto a best seller list, I’ve been disappointed and that may be why I too, tend to disdsain most of the books listed. But I am thrilled to bits to see quality stuff up there at all. We need more of you to infiltrate so people end up knowing what good writing is. Please.
“I get nervous around best-seller lists because they are filled with ‘popular’ books.”
Wouldn’t all the books on the best-seller list be popular by definition? ‘Cause, you know, “best-seller” means a lot of people bought it, which means it’s “popular.”
The fact that you cite several authors that you like who are all on the best-seller lists seems to contradict your “disdain” for the books included therein.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the best-seller lists, like any other lists of books, contain some books you like and some you don’t, but that the nature of the list itself isn’t the culprit.
Our very own favorite bestselling <a href=”http://www.oldbeeg.com/images/LL51.jpg” target=”_blank”>author</a> <a href=”http://www.oldbeeg.com/images/LL52.jpg” target=”_blank”>and pic2</a> at tonight’s signing.
<font size=1>(With apologies for my being photography challenged.)</font>
The idea that a book must be bad if it’s a bestseller is one I encounter a lot. (In part because I review a lot of bestsellers.) But that’s such simplistic thinking. Richard Price, George Pelecanos, Michael Connelly, Thomas Perry, Laura Lippman… These are lousy writers? I don’t think so.
There are many bestselling writers who have grown and improved with every book. I think people who sneer at *all* bestselling crime fiction writers are actually thinking of people like Cornwell, who has had a string of pretty awful novels after starting out well, and Patterson, who hasn’t grown at all (although I think his books have improved a lot since somebody else started writing them). But people like Dennis Lehane, Robert Crais, Karin Slaughter (one of my favorites), among many others, just keep getting better and better. Oh, and that writer who lives in Baltimore can go on that list too.
I moderate a mystery book discussion group made up entirely of writers, published and unpublished, and they denounce virtually every bestselling book we discuss as garbage unworthy of their time. It seems to be a reflex, and a regrettable one.
Great perspective, Laura. I travel weekly for business and believe that I can win when I am in front of my customer or potential customer. You can’t achieve sitting in the office. You are doing the same thing essentially. In addition to selling your book and my food, we gain so much from each meeting and region in perspective and understanding. In addition to the sales, we are better for the experiences.
And I don’t believe that best sellers are bad. Popular votes don’t mean the product is good. Just look at the ’04 presidential election. You just have to judge the book by it’s cover!
Some of the best recommendations come from other readers. The best seller list sometimes has a real gem, but my experience is that what’s popular is not necessarily good. I have found great recommendations from the Discovery mini-mag that Barnes and Nobles puts out, from Booksense, and oddly enough from the book magazine our local library puts out. However, there is nothing like just taking the time to browse a bookstore or library and making your own discovery. That is how I found this wonderful paperback book called Baltimore Blues. It was sitting on a table in the old location of Greetings and Readings and while I had never heard of the author, there was something about that book that caught my attention. As soon as I finished it, I started looking for the next book by the author, and the next and so on. I just finished her latest book!
“But then, i’m the same about most award lists as well; those ‘other lists of books’ often baffle me.”
That’s the point I was trying to make. Although you single out best-seller lists for your condemnation, it’s ALL lists of books you find questionable. But I suppose that simply stating “I don’t like books that other people like” would come across as even more curmudgeonly. But there’s no shame in having idiosyncratic taste, even if it does cause one on occasion to be a bit surly. (Believe me, I’ve been there. Personally, I would rather clean Patterson’s toilets than read one of his books.)
It was great seeing you again last night in Oakmont, Laura. If anyone is interested in more pics of the event and my take on it, I blogged about it today at http://annettedashofy.blogspot.com.
See you at Bouchercon!
Count me as one who gave up on Patterson years ago. Some good writers make it onto the b-s list, too, but I don’t automatically buy a book because it’s there…I’ll buy a book automatically if I’ve read the writer before, though. Anything new gets subjected to the first few sentences rule. How many books does one have to sell to make it to the list? I was under the impression that reading was becoming a lost art.
Don’t forget the non-fiction writers! There is one of those living in Baltimore as well. (May he discover the joys of book writing again) I’ve wondered if non-fiction book writers have it easier or harder when it comes to selling.
Yeah, but “popular” doesn’t always mean “good”.
My disdain for b-s list books is because I’ve tried many writers who regularly appear there, including Brown, Grisham, Patterson, King, Rice, Evanovich. I remember trying John Irving (didn’t get it) and over the years, every one I picked up BECAUSE it was on the NYT best seller list left me baffled and unsatisfied and I didn’t consider it to be a good book. What’s confusing about that?
The vast majority of books that show up on b-s lists don’t do it for me. That’s been the case for about 30 years. In recent years, that’s changed a bit but I’ve never “discovered” a new author thanks to the list, which was one reason I would try one from time to time. Over the years, overwhelmingly, the majority of books on the NYT best seller list that I have tried have failed to excite, enthrall or interest me. This list the past few weeks has been a lovely counter to that but I’m talking decades of trying and not getting it. But then, i’m the same about most award lists as well; those “other lists of books” often baffle me.
I am loving your book! The movie references are the icing on the cake. That’s a phrase I just now made up! Speaking of movie references, did you see THE STATION AGENT? I ask because that Tom McCarthy fellow from you-know-what wrote and directed it and I love it the most of any recent movie I’ve seen. Is it still recent? I’m getting to the age where everything seems recent. I love Tess! It’s my first Tess – I guess I’ll work my way back. xxx ooo for you and Tess both.
Hey, your “security feature” just gave me four things in a row that might have been g’s or q’s and I failed every time. That’s another sign that I’m getting old.
I admit — it makes me feel a little squirmy when any writer is singled out for criticism here. I’m a First Amendment absolutist, so I’ll never kill a remark unless it’s truly libelous, and I’m not worried about James Patterson reading this blog, but my hunch is that he’s a human being whose money/success doesn’t insulate him as much as it might seem. And I have no problem championing King’s writing, just fyi.
But, yes, “Confused in Canton,” I don’t think Andi would have any problem accepting “idiosyncratic” as a label. I’ve known Andi for a looooooooooong time, and I think she would wear the idiosyncratic label proudly.
Meanwhile, LUSH LIFE has been on the New York Times bestseller list for a month now. Some good books will get their due. (Do NOT get me started on James Wood’s review in the New Yorker, which starts out so smartly, but manages to be wrong on genre and Price. Look, I would love to have Richard Price on my team, whatever the sport. But he doesn’t write police procedurals. He writes novels that happen to have police officers as characters, and he is interested in work, so their work is detailed. As one critic noted, LUSH LIFE quickly discards the whodunit aspect of its story and becomes more interesting it the process. Which is not a knock on the whodunit. In a world where generalization is generally despised and discouraged, literary criticism still seems to revel in it.)
And just for Jack, a little “inside” gossip: McCarthy read for the part of Carcetti in you-know-what early on, and was championed by Bob Colesberry, to whom the latest book is dedicated. Bob died in the winter of 2004, so The Station Agent is at least five years old, I think. Tom is super-smart and I hear his new movie, whose title has flown out of my head, is quite good.
“Although you single out best-seller lists for your condemnation, it’s ALL lists of books you find questionable. “
Hardly. As Jackie has offered, there are lots of lists I do find useful, where i get lots of recommendations. I don’t believe that I’ve questioned “all” lists. Bookstores, mailing lists, friends, reviews, are among the ways I find books. Lists of “best of the year” books come into consideration, from readers and from reviewers and websites. i think we should agree not to undrestand each other because I don’t underestand you and i don’t feel like you’re reading me at all accurately.
I’ve never seen “idiosyncratic” as a pejorative. Whether it’s good or bad remains to be seen but hell no, I would never take offense at it and yes, THANK YOU Laura for saying this:
“I’ve known Andi for a looooooooooong time, and I think she would wear the idiosyncratic label proudly.”
I would say, ah, yeah, yep, uh-huh, that’ll do fine. I don’t TRY to be that way, in taste or otherwise but i guess I am. I don’t TRY to find, say the Edgar nominee list baffling BUT I DO end up that way.
So yeah, i’ll let my er “idiosycratic” freak flag fly, thank you.
And please note, I think Stephen King is a GREAT guy and I’m glad he’s around. I have no idea what kind of people these other folks are and I don’t believe it’s a good thing to go after them as people, for reasons Laura points out. I was commenting on their writing only, and think we should stay there.
Welcome back! I can’t believe how energized you were by the tour despite the gruelling schedule. Speaking of authors and best sellers, did you see the bronze plaques in the sidewalk near Prairie Lights? Only in Iowa City do they honor writers that way, but then people literally walk all over them. In case you missed it, there was a news item in the paper yesterday about the death of Baltimore Four’s Tom Lewis. See you in the ‘hood…Jerry
I’m coming to see you tomorrow – 4/9 – at Border’s! Last book, it was Barnes & Noble White Marsh, but I couldn’t make that, so I’ll travel a bit. Looking forward to it. I’ve enjoyed your comments on the tour.
Always loved your writing, Laura. I don’t think you need the telescope. You’re closer than you think.
I hope the next time you go on a booksigning tour you make a pass through Kentucky. Lots of crime/mystery fans here in the bluegrass.
I’d tempt you with Derby tickets if I thought it would work. ::grins::
All the best,
Cerri
Congrats on the <a href=”http://onlyrealbookawards.blogspot.com/”>new award</a>! I couldnt agree more.