THE CAREER NOVELIST
guide to self-promotion, booths at ABA (the annual convention of
the American Booksellers Association), ads in Publishers Weekly, and
so on, have empowered women and left some old-time male authors
privately fuming. (They needn't: men can join Sisters in Crime, too.)
It would be a mistake, however, to think that simply being a
woman author or writing a woman PI will make it easier to get pub-
lished. That is not so. Competition has taken care of that. Standing
out in today's glutted market takes something more.
Strong regional settings seemed a surefire idea for a couple of
minutes, but that moment has passed. Some feel that African
American authors are shoo-ins these days, but while the work of
Walter Mosley, Blanche Neely, Eleanor Taylor Bland, and Hugh
Holton, to name a few, is a welcome correction of a long-standing
lack, ethnicity is not an automatic ticket to ride.
Nor does employing a gay detective guarantee publication,
despite the success of Joseph Hansen's books. Lesbian protagonists
are not a sure thing, either, Sandra Scoppetone's success notwith-
standing. Being cozy, comical, culinary, or historical is also not
surefire, though each of these approaches has had its year in the
sun and retains its subcategory leaders.
So what does work? Ask editors today, and they will tell you they
are looking for a "unique voice," by which they seem to mean some-
thing fresh and original. But even that may not be enough. Recently
I have been marketing the most original mystery manuscript I have
ever read. Editors agree with me about it, yet time after time they
have turned it down with the remark, "I don't know how to sell
this"—meaning it is too original!
It makes you want to cry. In spite of all this, my best advice to new
authors is to ignore trends and market tips and write the mysteries
that they want to read but are finding nowhere on the shelves. Just
be sure that those novels have compelling hooks, great prose, cap-
tivating characters, vivid settings, and, on top of all that, utterly
superb mystery plots!
Oh yes, and be sure that your mystery novel is the start of a
series.
Once in the door and on the way, making one's mark does not get
much easier. Often it can take five books just to establish an audi-