Recently, the Authors Guild published its 2018 Author Income Survey and its findings are ugly. Median writers’ income has fallen 49% from 2009 to a measly $6,080. It gets worse. Income derived solely from books has fallen 21% to $3,100. The survey points out that full time writers are earning additional income from teaching and speaking. But this only gets their median annual […]
Seduction has never been my thing. Not in the real world, in terms of enticing a romantic partner to my boudoir. (Does anyone even have a boudoir these days?) If you’ve seen the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, think about the scene where Kathy Bates imagines answering the door in cling wrap. That would be me on a good day. But
For any aspiring novelists out there, how many books do you have on how to write a novel? At least a dozen are sitting on my shelf, with a handful more taking up space on my Kindle – all mocking me. I probably subscribe to the same magazines that you do, and I’ve read many of the same articles that
“Geez. How can you write a whole book?” I get asked that a lot. Most people see a book as an extended homework assignment or some written report to humanity that has to be done before they take the dirt nap. It’s always presented, from those people who ask, as an obligation—as some onerous task that one has to suffer
What is crime? It begins as a kernel of an idea that metamorphoses itself into a series of thoughts that lead to a transgression against the law and, sometimes, the taking of a human life. It upsets the balance in a safe and ordered world. But this turmoil and chaos are precisely what an author craves and desperately needs when
Is this you? You’re just getting started in the field of mystery writing and eager to hone your craft. You’d like to enroll in a writing course or attend a conference, but don’t know how you can afford it. Perhaps the expense of doing research for your current work in progress is keeping you from your goal. If this sounds
Sometimes, on panels or at book club visits, I’m asked, “Why mysteries?” Other than that I love to read them, that I grew up spending hours in the company of yet another Agatha Christie or Dick Francis, I like to reply that mysteries, and crime fiction in general, provide the satisfaction of structure. Crime fiction demands a beginning, middle, and
“Ripped from the headlines!” “Inspired by a real story.” “Some of what follows is true…” These are all familiar phrases that many mystery authors – including myself – have used to describe the murderous plots we write about in our books. On the face of it, this sure seems like a pretty nifty concept. Find a sensational crime in the
Like most writers I know, I write because I have to. Not the kind of have to where you’re going to die if you don’t. Or even the kind of have to because if you don’t you can’t pay the bills and you’ll starve to death and so will your family and then you’ll be thrown out on the street
One question I get asked frequently as a mystery author is whether I spend a great deal of time doing research before writing my novels. The answer is yes. I’ve done a heckuva lot of research for my books. Just not the kind you might think. I’m a longtime New York City journalist (New York Post, New York Daily News,
My reading habit was mostly self-inflicted, though heavily influenced by my father’s collection of boyhood books, notably the works of Edgar Rice Boroughs, Zane Grey, Tom Swift and lots of other popular action writers of the early 20th century now lost in obscurity. But the mystery addiction is all my mother’s fault. She didn’t know the term, but she was
Never end a sentence with a preposition? That is the sort of pedantry up with which I shall not put. (Winston Churchill) Sometimes it’s okay to savagely split an infinitive. (Me) And if it sometimes seems right to start a sentence with ‘and’ or ‘but,’ do it. Subject, predicate, object is almost always the right order. Until it gets boring.
I always want to be writing anything other than the thing I’m supposed to be writing. This is the impulse that drives my productivity. It’s why I have so many irons in the fire, because there’s nothing like a fresh iron to take your mind off the ones already in the forge. The problem with working on the thing I’m
When I tell people that I’ve never written a query that didn’t result in a request for pages, they can’t believe it. When I tell them I only ever sent out three (or six if you count the random assignments I was given to pitch to at conferences) queries, they are shocked. But here’s the thing: I researched before I
This month’s MWA meeting was about conferences. I personally think that if you can afford conferences, you should go, because nothing else works quite so well to get your name out there and allow you to meet people you might want to work with in the future. That said, I have a few thoughts on the topic of things that
