NAOMI HIRAHARA

As Murderati mate Simon Wood described in a past entry, most of us here on blog are vertically challenged–except for the two statuesque women who close out the week.

At 4’10", I’m venturing a guess that I’m the shortest of the short. It’s not a big (no pun intended) deal for me. I was born this way and will die this way, only probably a few inches shorter. If you could see the rest of my extended family, it would make perfect sense why I stand this tall. That didn’t keep me from playing basketball from sixth grade on, even serving as one of the point guards for my high school basketball team (as Troy Cook has said, go Tigers!).

Although I was raised in the seventies, I didn’t succumb to the temptation to buy a pair of platform shoes. Platforms, which are making a comeback, would have elevated me to at least reach the five-feet status. But I was bit of a nerd, preferring wallabies, brown saddle shoes, and my orange high-top Converse All-Stars (Tigers, remember?).

These days in publishing, the talk is all about an author’s platform. Here platform is where he or she stands in terms of spheres of influence. One’s platform can be the difference between getting a book contract and not getting one at all. (If you’re still confused with the term, "author’s platform," see this or this.)

So what’s a non-celebrity to do? Well, look around because you may have a built-in platform. Let me use some of my Murderati blogmates and the current Sister in Crime–L.A. chapter president to give you a few concrete examples:

EXHIBIT #1 The Case of the New Mexico Writer

With two prestigious Agatha nominations under her belt, Pari (Monday’s child) is anything but regional. But starting out with her debut mystery, THE CLOVIS INCIDENT, Pari first attacked what she knew best: the Southwest–the subject of her Sasha Solomon series.

She had already contributed newspaper columns to the Albuquerque Tribune and articles to a publication that served both Albuquerque and Santa Fe. She became active in writing organizations, where she met respected authors like Tony Hillerman and who gave her a wonderful blurb for her debut. She participated in book fairs in shopping malls and helped start Croak & Dagger, the Sisters in Crime chapter in Albuquerque (even serving as its founding president).

Since getting published, Pari has been extending her net beyond her New Mexico and Southwest home base. She’ll be contributing a monthly column for Mystery Writers of America’s The Third Degree newsletter in which she’ll be interviewing editors and agents in the crime fiction world. Key from the very beginning has been her extensive public relations and marketing background, which aided in her getting an introduction to her publisher, University of New Mexico Press, in the first place.

EXHIBIT #2 The Case of the Paralegal

Sue Ann Jaffarian, the president of the Sisters in Crime Los Angeles chapter is a paralegal. Her protagonist, Odelia Grey, is also a paralegal. Pretty convenient, yes?

Sue Ann went with iuniverse, a POD or print-on-demand publisher, to publish her first two mysteries, TOO BIG TO MISS and CURSE OF THE HOLY PAIL. This could sound the death knell for a mystery series, but Sue Ann proved all critics wrong. She went into super promotion mode, and indeed did it big. Trained also as a stand-up comedian, she booked gigs at paralegal conferences to talk about her books. Soon she herself would handsell more than a thousand of each book. That and her sharp writing attracted a traditional publisher, Llewellyn Worldwide and its new Midnight Ink print. TOO BIG TO MISS, this time sporting a bright green cover, made its second debut at the beginning of this year, and the revised CURSE OF THE HOLY PAIL will be released next year.

Exhibit #3 The Case of the Killer Year

So what’s up with the Class of 2007, writers who are coming out with their debut mysteries and thrillers next year (or close to it)? So many of them already have their own websites and most of them have their own blogs. Look at our J.T. Ellison as a prime example. They have even banded together with a group website and blog, which was launched this Monday. Congrats, all!

I only got a full website with multiple pages up this year for my third mystery and just started blogging. So I am definitely behind the curve.

I’m wondering now if this will be more and more a requirement for aspiring writers. To establish an Internet presence even before a first book is picked up. It’s a bit frightening, but all I can say is that I’m glad I’m already published.

To find a platform does not mean picking up an ill-fitting shoes. But to see what’s natural, comfortable, and appropriate for us and most importantly, the best for actual walking. At times we will have to change–the introvert will have to become slightly more extroverted, the computer averse will have to take a few classes.

For the examples mentioned here, there are probably as many writers who tell me that they had no platform in first getting published. But I predict that in order to stay in print, we will each have to find that natural platform to stand on.

THREE WAYS TO GAIN A PLATFORM

1) Leave your house. Yep, get out the door, wear something nice, drag that comb through your hair, and go to that meeting, party, convention, etc. Sometimes you might even have to do a little hard labor for an organization, maybe even speak, lead, or lug boxes, but it’s a great to meet people and get out of your head.

2) Love your computer. Kiss it everyday and be thankful that it works. Do wonderful websites and blogs and hook up with others who are doing the same. Exchange e-mails with strangers and wonder what they really sound and look like.

3) Write short. Write essays, write reviews, write short stories, write articles. Write things that are a thousand words or maybe two thousand words. Send them off to people that you’ve met via #1 and #2 and then go back to writing that darn book.

GUEST BLOGGER REVEALED: Well, Elaine Flinn’s knees and back thank you because no one guessed the identity of next week’s Wednesday guest blogger (I promised that Evil E would bow down to the one who guessed correctly). Well, next week’s Child of Woe will be none other than Gary Phillips, prolific writer of short stories, comic books, and the Ivan Monk and Martha Chainey mystery series. He also is on the board of Mystery Writers of America and will serve as the toastmaster of Left Coast Crime 2007 Seattle (note to self: turn in that registration).

Gary is featured on the cover of his MONKOLOGY short story collection as well as the dust jacket for a limited edition of George Pelecanos’ SOUL CIRCUS, the latter which unfortunately never made it to bookshelves. Both book projects were spearheaded by Dennis McMillan Publications.

Gary and I travel in some of the same circles in L.A. He’s a great writer, far out guy, and damn good looking to boot! If you haven’t seen Gary recently, that guy is cut (he claims having teens is a great weight-loss program). Have fun with him next week.

BLUE BELL BOLOGNA AND OTHER WEIRD SEARCH STRINGS: Had to mention a couple of really strange search strings (that is, what people googled, etc. to get on my website) that cropped up last week: blue bell bologna; hiroshima leather wallet; and the strangest, japanese dentures falling out video. What the heck is that? There’s a Japanese video of dentures falling out of someone’s mouth? Oh, I just googled–it is indeed a video, but it’s of a Korean man, most likely a politician. And I hate to admit it: it’s pretty funny.

MAS HITS WALL STREET: SNAKESKIN SHAMISEN, the third Mas Arai mystery, was reviewed in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal by Tom Nolan. Thank you, Mr. Nolan, for your continued interest in the series!

WEDNESDAY’S WORD: pikadon (SUMMER OF THE BIG BACHI, page 48)

Look carefully again–what do you see? How about pika? For those with children, does Pikachu ring a bell? Pikachu is, depending on your feelings about crass commercialism, an adorable yellow Pokemon creature with floppy ears or else related to the kid in the OMEN. At any rate, its name means "Electric Mouse" and I believe that it resides near a power plant, thus having some kind of post-nuclear connection to its ugly cousin Godzilla, a product of an explosion in the Marshall Islands. Anyway, pikadon, which literally means "bomb of light," refers to the atomic bomb. The people of Hiroshima also use the term genbaku.

(Your usual Friday hostess, the ever gracious and beautiful J.T. Ellison, leaves this message for all of you: “I’m in New York today on a research trip. It’s my first real trip to the city, a brief two day affair, and I’ll report back on all the excitement next week.” Subbing for her today is one of her very cranky cohorts who has become a little less cranky with this news.)

NAOMI HIRAHARA

First it was news of A Clean Well-Lighted Place closing its doors in San Francisco. And soon after that announcement, it was Cody’s Telegraph in Berkeley. The dam then seemed to break, at least in large cities. Bob and Bob in Palo Alto. Murder Ink in New York City. Dutton’s Beverly Hills. Luis Rodriguez’s Tia Chucha’s Cafe and Cultural Center. Book Soup in South Coast Plaza. And now possibly Dutton’s Brentwood might be erased by redevelopment. 

Changing demographics and pricey real estate, I thought. The impact of Internet sales and chain stores. Increased competition for our recreational time.

Two additional pieces of news that opened January (and we’re only three weeks into the new year) bode badly for publishing, especially in the independent realm—the bankruptcy of Advanced Marketing Services (AMS) and Independent Press Association (IPA).

So what the heck is going on? And for most of us who have never really heard of AMS or IPA (like myself), should this concern us?

The AMS Story

The humble start of AMS follows one of those homespun, rags-to-riches storylines: its first shipment as a book wholesaler was a children’s book, which was delivered to a Price Club from the back of one of the cofounder’s station wagon in 1982. The company quickly grew from there—to being the primary book supplier to four Price Clubs to securing deals with Price Club’s successor, Costco, as well as Sam’s Club and Pace Membership. Large distribution centers were opened in major cities; AMS became a publicly traded company; and international agreements were forged in Great Britain and Mexico. Among the flurry of acquisitions AMS initiated during the past decade was the purchase of Publishers Group West (PGW), the esteemed and largest distributor of independent publishers in North America.

Why has this great behemoth of a company, which boasts $900 million in sales on its website, declared Chapter 11? Evidence of the cracks in the company was revealed in the 2005 conviction of three executives in a scheme to falsify earnings and defrauding publishers of co-op advertising funds (news release, Office of the U.S. Attorney, Southern District of California). Leadership also went through a merry-go-round of changes.

Perseus Books Group has stepped in to offer distribution rights for PGW clients, many of them small presses whose survival greatly depends on recouping both the monies and inventory owed to them during the last quarter of 2006, arguably the most profitable season for publishers. (Perseus actually will be acquiring a PGW client, Avalon Publishing Group, which includes Caroll & Graf.)

An AMS creditor’s committee has also been formed, comprised of Random House, Penguin, Hachette Book Group, Grove/Atlantic and Wisdom Publications. Two of these publishers—Grove/Atlantic and Wisdom Publications—are PGW clients, so independents hope that their interests will be represented during the bankruptcy negotiations.

And on a more personal note, I have friends who produce books which are distributed by PGW. (PGW is very discriminating, so I remember how happy they were when they finally were accepted as a PGW client.) I’m afraid to contact them to see how they are doing. I know that business was hard to begin with, and now this. Devastating.

IPA

There are these magazines born out of the zine revolution of 1990s—you know, those photocopied and stapled in garages, which also served as the main rehearsal area for punk bands. Well, these zines have grown up. I’m not really part of this world, but I’m a big fan of Giant Robot. It was actually through publisher Eric Nakamura’s blog that I learned about the fall of GR’s distributor IPA, which distributed the now glossy mag to newsstands throughout the country.

Again, this will affect independent publishers; some have announced closures already.

So are all these bankruptcies and closings coincidental? Rather than a trend, are they a correction of bad, illegal, or perhaps unimaginative business practices? Or is it something more?

In this publishing game, it’s all about distribution. How to get your product, whether it be books or magazines, out to its readers. I won’t go all red, white, and blue on you and talk about the need for a variety of voices in a democracy. But it is particularly disturbing that in the case of AMS, fraud definitely played a role in compromising the integrity of a company that was responsible for distribution of so many independent publishers. And who knows—with large publishers owed so much (Random House, $43.3 million; Simon & Schuster, $26.5 million; Penguin Putnam, $24.6 million; the list goes on)—is it only a matter of time before midlist authors at these houses take some kind of hit?

In terms of book selling, there are glimmers of hope, daffodils in the snow. Books Inc. has taken over A Clean Well-Lighted Place and one of the co-owners of (ACWLP) has already started a new venture, Bookshop West Portal in San Francisco. A Sister in Crime, Julie Ann Swayze has launched an independent bookstore, Metropolis Bookstore, in the middle of downtown Los Angeles to great fanfare, with expansive writeups in Publishers Weekly and the Los Angeles Times. And independent bookstore proponent and author Keith Raffel happily reports that his beloved store, Bob and Bob, has secured a new location.

Producing, distributing, and selling books are a tedious and expensive business. For most, especially the independents, it’s a labor of love. To see some players treat it with such disrespect is disappointing, to say the least.

To keep up to date with the AMS bankruptcy and the unfortunate repercussions felt by PGW as well as publishers, both large and small, check out www.galleycat.com, www.pw.com, and Radio Free PGW (http://radiofreepgw.blogspot.com/index.html) Also, the online archives of the San Diego Union-Tribune (www.signsonsandiego.com). (AMS is headquartered in San Diego.)