Dear Jodi and Jennifer
I’ve been following your so-called “literary feud” with Jonathan Franzen, which was blown way out of proportion by bloggers and columnists trying to stir up conflict during these summer doldrums. It’s really not a feud at all. It was simply two bestselling women novelists making note of how much review attention is lavished on certain authors, while other authors are pointedly ignored. Franzen, as far as I can tell, is an inadvertent combatant. All he did was write a book, and based on his previous work and the fact he hasn’t produced a book in a long, long time, it’s not surprising that his novel got reviewed. So we’ll leave Franzen out of it. (Besides, he can’t help the fact he’s a white male literary figure.)
The real issue you raised is worth talking about: why is commercial fiction, especially by women novelists, so seldom reviewed in the New York Times? No one disputes that fact. The discussion, unfortunately, hasn’t been about the topic itself. Instead it’s degenerated into attacks on the worth of popular fiction, on your books (derided as “chick lit,” whatever that is), and on you both, personally. Self-important critics, waving their MFA’s, claim that they, of course, recognize “good” writing, writing that “springs off the page“, and popular fiction just ain’t good enough to make that vaunted spring. Or hop. Or even twitch. Popular novelists just “churn out” their books every year or two anyway because, as we all know, popular fiction is so easy to write and sell, and anybody can do it. You just have to sit down, write a story that hits all the predictable populist buttons such as love, marriage, family, conflict, kids, etc., and presto, it will show up in Target. The words don’t even have to spring off the page, they can just crawl. Or lie there. And then you sit back and collect your million-dollar royalty checks. So girls, be grateful that you have such an easy time of it while those hardworking literary authors must struggle to make their words spring. And even with those words springing all over the place like little fleas, the books still can’t find their audience. They don’t get into Target. They struggle in obscurity.
That, they say, is why they need the New York Times. And you don’t.
You know what, Jodi and Jennifer? They’re absolutely right. You really don’t need the New York Times. You don’t need Michiko Kakutani or Janet Maslin or three whole fricking pages in the Book Review. Because you have something far, far better: readers who actually buy your books.
Readers are the most important critics of all, because they vote with their hard-earned dollars. Every time they buy a Jodi Picoult or Jennifer Weiner book (and judging by your positions on the bestseller lists, there’s a whole ton of these people) they are expressing their approval. And they keep on expressing their approval by repeatedly buying your books. Which means you must be touching something inside them, connecting with them, entertaining them. You’re doing this without some literary expert telling them they should feel these things; your words are enough to make it happen.
I happen to love the New York Times. I love the writing, the depth of its analysis, and the sometimes quirky subject matter. The only section I don’t read is Sports. As the years go by, I’m sorry to say, I’m also starting to skip past the Book Review. Why? Because I’m not really interested in reading another “glowing” memoir about alcoholism. Or yet another novel about white middle-aged male angst. Or the latest translation of War and Peace. I find their reviews of non-fiction useful, but their fiction reviews seldom tempt me into buying the books.
I wonder if other readers share my sense that the Book Review is less and less relevant to our lives. Sure, we may read the New York Times Book Review just to brag to others that we “know all about” the latest literary masterpiece. But then we go into the bookstore and buy Sandra Brown instead. We all think the Book Review is the undisputed arbiter of good taste, and without its approval, our books are doomed. That just isn’t true. Popular fiction sells just fine without being reviewed there.
We commercial authors don’t need the Book Review, but the Book Review needs us. It needs our publishers to buy ad space. Yet fewer and fewer publishers seem inclined to shell out the thirty thousand bucks to buy a full-page Book Review ad. When my publisher and I were discussing the promotional campaign for my latest book, Ice Cold, there was no discussion at all about buying ad space in the Times, even though they’d done it for my prior books. And I agreed with them that buying an ad in the Book Review is a waste of money. Why?
Because readers who buy commercial novels like mine don’t even read the Book Review any more. It’s become that irrelevant to their lives.
I absolutely agree that literary fiction should be reviewed there. But focusing only on fiction that few readers want to read just guarantees a death spiral for the Book Review. The more they limit their focus to esoteric fiction, the fewer readers will read their reviews. And fewer and fewer publishers will buy ads.
Recently, my UK publisher did a survey of my readership, and they came up with a figure that I found fascinating. Of all adult fiction purchased, 42% of books were bought because the customer had read the author before. But of those who bought my books, 62% purchased them because they had read me before. And 90% bought my books not to give away, but for themselves. That brand loyalty doesn’t come from a Times review; it comes from building your audience book by book. It comes from consistently satisfying your readers.
The way you, Jodi and Jennifer, have managed to do.
So ignore the slings and arrows from the literati crowd. Let them find their audience the good old-fashioned way: by writing books that people actually want to read.
My UK tour for THE KILLING PLACE
I spent ten glorious days on book tour in the UK for THE KILLING PLACE. (It’s the same book as ICE COLD, but in the UK, it’s published under a different title.) Tours in the US can fraught with anxiety. Because the country is so large, you’re always hurrying to catch a plane, worried that your flight won’t take off in time or be cancelled, worried that you’ll miss an event. But in the UK, my publisher makes everything so easy. My wonderful publicist Alison Barrow or one of her assistants always travels with me. And our travel is a breeze because of this man. I call him the mysterious Bradley Rose because he hates to have his photo taken, but I caught him at a vulnerable moment, over his boiled egg. (His name was immortalized as the evil Bradley Rose in my book THE KEEPSAKE. And Mo Hayder, another Transworld author, had a character named Rose Bradley in one of her books!)
My tour started off in Edinburgh, where I spoke at the International Book Festival. It was part of the larger Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a city-wide celebration of performing arts that draws people from all over the world. Every hour of the day and night, there are multiple performances in various venues, everything from dance to drama to comedy to music. I got a chance to attend one dance performance: amazing, funny, and truly creative!
After Edinburgh, it was off to Newcastle and York, where I had a few hours to tour the city. Here I am standing in the lovely old street called The Shambles:
That evening, in Manchester, I was joined by author Tom Cain, and together we spoke at Waterstone’s Deansgate.
Here we are with the Manchester Waterstone’s team:
But my tour wasn’t limited to bookstores. I also spoke at the Royal Bolton Hospital, where medical personnel got the chance to listen to me instead of a Grand Rounds lecture. And in Belfast, I joined the lovely author Niamh O’Connor in a really fun event at a movie cinema! Outside the cinema, they’d hung a poster of our event right next to the movie posters with Angelina Jolie.
In London, I met with my incredible Transworld team, including my legendary crime-fiction editor, Selina Walker (all bright and cheery in her summer dress!):
Then we were back on the road to visit Rainham Library in Essex followed by the beautiful Bishopswood House in Ross-on-Wye for an event hosted by Rossiter Books. There were quick drop-ins at Waterstone’s Shrewsbury and Waterstone’s in Chester, which happened to coincide with their very busy race day. The streets of Chester were jam packed with men in natty suits and women in long gowns, there to watch the horse races and do some hard partying afterwards. I walked the entire wall enclosing Chester (about two miles), and later on the street saw these two adorable buskers playing music from “Star Wars” and “Harry Potter”.
Finally, it was off to the Blooming Good Books Festival at the Southport Flower Show, where I spoke beneath a lovely white tent to an audience of about 100.
Usually when I give my talk about the scary subjects in my books, the audience always gasps when I talk about the corpse that woke up in a body bag. This flower show crowd didn’t react at all to that anecdote. Then I told them about my trip to the Los Angeles set of “Rizzoli & Isles,” which was being filmed in a mansion where there were gorgeous blooming rose bushes. “Since the scene was supposed to take place on a fall evening in Boston,” I said, “the set designer came in and cut all the rose blooms.” That’s when the entire audience gave a loud gasp of horror. I guess we know what really scares a gardener.
No blog about the UK would be complete without at least a mention of what I ate. I confess, I ate french fries almost every single day — sometimes even twice a day. Two favorite meals stand out in my memory. The first was in Edinbrugh, at the Michelin-starred 21212. I also had a wonderful meal in Belfast at Cafe Conor where I dined on a heavenly meal of seared pork in a Calvados sauce.
This was one book tour that I’m sorry had to end!
Reviews, bias, and women writers
After reading the remarks by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner, which I mentioned in my last blog post, as well as the superb comments by Laura Lippman over on her blog, I’ve been thinking a lot about this topic. I really wasn’t planning to add anything, as I think these three ladies have covered it well. I also have mixed feelings about getting reviewed at all in the New York Times , because it’s a mixed blessing. Hurray, you got reviewed! But oh dear, those reviews are too often public beheadings in which your blood ends up splattered all over those previously much-coveted 10 column-inches. No, much better to be ignored by the Times and not have to endure the sympathetic silence of your friends, family, and neighbors after M. Kakutani pronounces you the Worst Writer in the World. Getting spotlit by M.K.’s evil eye seems about as appealing as getting caught in Sauron’s terrifying glare.
Then again, I can’t help wondering. What is it about the NYT and women writers? What do they have against us?
I don’t detect this bias in newspapers abroad. In the UK, my crime novels have been reviewed by just about every major newspaper. The UK Telegraph published my article about my childhood experience with murder, and flew out a photographer to take photos. When I look at my English-language review clippings, the majority of the reviews are not from the U.S. but from the UK, Canada, South Africa, and Australia. Is it the old phenomenon of “you’re never a prophet in your own home land”? Or does the NYT (and I’ll also throw in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post here) simply have a thing against women writers?
While I don’t have hard statistics (can anyone help me with this?) it seems to me that UK newspapers regularly — and respectfully — review crime novels by women. If we catch any flak there, it’s usually about our books being too visceral and gory. But that’s simply a matter of taste, not anti-woman bias. I’ve certainly never been slammed with a review like the one I received from the Washington Post a few years ago, sneeringly titled: “Adventures of the Lactating Detective.” The book was VANISH, in which Detective Jane Rizzoli gives birth to her first child and struggles to combine motherhood with her duties as a homicide detective. I don’t have the piece in front of me (and I think I ripped it up after I read it) but I recall that the reviewer (a man, of course) said that you’d have to care about girly stuff like motherhood and breast-feeding troubles to enjoy the book, and he really wasn’t interested in that nonsense. (VANISH, by the way, received the Nero Wolfe Award and was a Macavity and Edgar nominee.) This same reviewer raised a similar objection to Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone series: too much boring stuff about what women think.
While we women fret over the sparsity of reviews, we may actually face a far deeper and more disturbing issue here in the U.S.: an utter disdain for women in general. A disdain for our lives, our experiences, what we think, what we care about. A disdain that makes it acceptable for a reviewer to state that readers don’t care about childbirth and motherhood. A disdain that’s so ingrained in the institution that his editor didn’t call him on it.
If that reviewer had said “no one really cares about what African Americans or Hispanic Americans think”, do you think his editor would have let that slip by?
Some interesting links…
While I recover from my whirlwind tour of the UK, here are a few fascinating articles to peruse:
Does the NYT book review favor white male literary darlings?
Jodi Picoult believes so, and she’s backed up by this.
Who are the top ten highest earning authors? (No surprise that #1 is James Patterson)
I’m headed to the UK
Leaving tonight for my UK book tour. For details of where I’ll be, check my “events” page!
Why dead women sell books
Check out my blog post on Murderati about why thrillers feature so many female victims.
Some recent interviews
And with Haegwan Kim (“The Law of Success”.)
Rizzoli & Isles opening titles
In case the show hasn’t come to your country yet, here’s what the opening titles look like. As a fiddler and a Celtic music fan, I love the music!
“Rizzoli & Isles” renewed for second season
The news was announced last Friday, just as I was making my way to the Romance Writers of America conference.
Radio interview August 4th
Tune in as Mike Marcellino interviews me on his radio show.
About Mike:
Mike Marcellino, host of “Notebookwriter with Mike Marcellino,” a popular Blog Talk Radio show on writers, served in the U. S. Army as Vietnam War correspondent and is a national award winning journalist. He continues to write stories and poems about people, places and things. Mike has added a twist, with musicians the stories become a unique blend of music and spoken word. He’s performed in New York City, Cleveland, Tulsa, St. Augustine, FL and Baltimore. Mike ranks among the Top Folk Artists in New York City on the music website ReverbNation. His new recordings include New York City stories, Alphabet Coffeehouse and Flatbush, Amelia Earhart, soft silver wings, and The Walls of Fire. He surfs and writes about that too (Bondi Beach). His writing appears in Coventry Street Fair Anthology and Stain Glass Confessional II and online at Outsider Writers, Red Fez, Literary Fever and Universe of Poetry. Mike hosts Notebook Writer Blog Talk Radio show on writers and the arts. He is author of the Networked Blog, “The Point of the Whole Thing,” in the top 10 most popular blogs on Facebook. Mike received national awards for investigative reporting and community service. He served on the staffs of former U. S. Rep. Louis Stokes of Ohio and former Cleveland Mayor Michael White, working on international human rights issues and veterans and military affairs.