Will the Publishers Rise Up?
So, whatcha been doin’?
Despite the gloom and doom of the everything, I’ve had a couple of hopeful events.
The auction I helped organize, Crime Writers for Trans Rights, ended a couple of weeks ago, and I was recently on a panel with Holly Karapetkova and Sean Murphy at the annual Barrelhouse Conference, where we discussed “writing as an act of resistance.”
Those sound like spicy protest events! Is a movement forming?
Maybe! That was the recurring theme in a lot of the discussions I’ve had this past week - this palpable urge to resist.
How does that affect writers?
Actually, when it came to writing and resistance, a lot of the conversations I had were about publishers.
How so?
They may not admit it on social media but, after a few beers at a conference bar, most writers I’ve met will tell you that they resent their publishers.
Some of their complaints are justified, some naive. But it seemed that disappointed writerly sentiment informed the question of, “What are publishers going to do in the current political climate?”
Are they going to follow the pattern of so many other businesses, and take a docile knee to the administration? Or are they going to stand up and support marginalized voices and reactionary writing?
Do writers have a lot of faith in publishers?
They do not. Everyone I spoke with assumes publishers will pull a Columbia and do whatever the administration wants, either because of direct pressure (the very visible hand of the free market) or because they’ll assume readers now want different stories.
What’s your take?
My general ethos in life is to never trust anyone in charge, and to be relatively certain that anything those people do is to keep the balance of power tilted in their direction. And that goes for governments, religions, companies, this one guy named Gary who fired me from a Structure I worked at in college, etc.
But.
Most of the subversive books I read that have fundamentally informed my worldview were traditionally published - and a lot were published by big five publishers. Whether it was the works of James Baldwin or Henrik Ibsen or Toni Morrison or Ta-Nehisi Coates or Roxane Gay or, in contemporary crime fiction, Kellye Garrett, S.A. Cosby, PJ Vernon, and more.
It’s not like publishers haven’t taken risks. There may be a lot of boilerplate crud out there, but there’s also some unique stuff in those stacks (and unique stuff, by definition, is always going to be scarce).
So why don’t writers trust publishers? What’s their beef? Why are all of you writers so whiny and miserable and short?
We’re not always miserable! But, as I said earlier, us writers often feel slighted or abandoned when our books don’t do as well as we wanted. Usually it’s a complaint of marketing support, sometimes it’s a cover or title change. Some of those complaints are legit.
And sometimes a book just doesn’t resonate with the public.
I learned something valuable from No Home for Killers. Thomas and Mercer (my publisher) gave that book all the support I could want, more than I’ve ever had. I reached an audience of tens of thousands.
And, this is so heartbreaking, but that book didn’t connect.
I’ve written about this before, so I won’t go into it again, but I put that onus on me. I think (in hindsight, because of fucking course it’s hindsight) that the story should have been told differently and ended differently. I know now how it could have been better.
Basically, I had the chance to perform on stage, and the crowd didn’t applaud when I was done. That’s a hard thing to accept.
And I think more writers need to realize that, regardless of the treatment you receive from publishers or readers or reviewers or bookstores or your family or Gary, sometimes your book simply fails. And you just have to keep going and improve.
And then you have to find a way to get back on that stage, and show the audience what they’re missing out on.
But back to the point…
Sorry about the digression! But I thought it was important to mention (what are often) the sour roots of writerly resentment.
The real question we’re asking in this essay is: will the big publishers support diverse, transgressive, reactionary work over the next four years (assuming elections continue)? And the real answer is…
Maybe. I dunno.
I suspect most of the voices listed above (not Ibsen or Baldwin, so much) will continue writing and publishing over the next four years, and I think they’ll continue to write fiery, uplifting, informing work. Publishers will support them in the way they generally support efforts to stop book bans or stand by libraries.
Of course, standing by popular authors and those particular political efforts also supports the publishers’ bottom lines, so those are stances of financial convenience. When it comes to other things that are problematic in literature (stares AI-ward), those publishers are unnervingly quiet.
Why is that? Do the people at publishers suck?
I’ve never had a bad editor. They’ve stood by me and supported me and believed in me and fought for me. The ones I’ve known have been progressive and eager to champion progressive voices.
But, like a lot of employees, they do their jobs under the indecisive whims of management. And, under those whims, those editors (the ones I’ve had, at least) still search for ways to support their writers.
Okay, let me ask this plainly, and don’t digress: As the cruelty and authoritarianism mount, will publishers defy the government’s wishes and publish contrary voices?
I think they will. Not out of morality, but because there’s an audience for it. It may not always be apparent, but the audience is there, and they are seething.
That auction I mentioned earlier, Crimes Writers for Trans Rights? Our goal was $20,000, which we all worried was an overreach by about $20,000. We ended the auction with over $60,000 for the Transgender Law Center.
Our panel at Barrelhouse was held in a giant lecture hall. Every single seat was filled with a writer ready for a fight.
Keep writing, keep improving. The audience for your work is waiting.
And if you want to be traditionally published, all you can do is hope that the right publisher will realize that, and have the courage to help you tell it.
EA
This Thursday, on April 24, I’m reading at a Virginia Noir at the Bar at Elaine’s in Alexandria, hosted by Alan Orloff. I have something new I’m excited to read, and the lineup is crazy good. Check out the info below, and come out to hang and listen and eat.
And I had the pleasure of reviewing Bryan Gruley’s newest novel, Bitterfrost, for the Washington Post, which I thought captured the feeling of a small, snowy, Michigan town really well. You can read my review here.
Hey hey kidz! I’m trying something new. I love featuring writers in my newsletter, but I want to give them a variety of options on how best to introduce themselves to new readers. I do like “Kiss, Marry or Kill” and, boy, you and I have sure had some fun times with it, but I really love hearing about an author’s best moment in writing and/or publishing. When I do interviews, I always end with this question because it makes people happy, and I love making people happy because I have a desperate need to be loved. Anyway, now I’m asking writers which approach they’d like, and Tori Eldridge picked writing about “My Favorite Moment.”
Tori Eldridge has been a prolific writer ever since she emerged on the scene with The Ninja Daughter, the first book in her acclaimed, award-winning series, the Lily Wong Mystery Thrillers about a modern-day female ninja who rescues women from abusive relationships. After four books with Lily, Tori’s now starting a new series about Makalani Pahukula, a park ranger who returns home to Hawai’i to find her cousins missing, and is pulled into the desperate search to find them. This new novel, Kaua’i Storm, has been described as Kill Bill meets the Joy Luck Club, which is a combination I hadn’t known I’d needed in my life, but now I very much do.
Tori Eldridge has had a fast-paced, successful career, and she shared the best moment(s) from it below:
It’s a funny thing about best moments, they evolve over time as we reach one goal and the next. For a while, my best moment was the day my agent called to tell me I landed my first book deal. I was having lunch with a friend I hadn’t seen in years mere hours before the Woolsey Fire forced us to evacuate from our homes.
Then it was at ThrillerFest when my publisher handed me my very first ARC. An aspiring author happened to be pitching her manuscript to my editor in a quietly intense room, saw my excitement, and videotaped me jumping and literally squealing with joy. That sweet woman, who became a dear friend, was none other than Wanda M. Morris!
Another special moment was in Honolulu for my first debut author event when over fifty high school friends, teachers, and relatives I hadn’t seen in decades showed up to hear me talk about the story and ordered their copies before The Ninja Daughter had even been released! That memory feels particularly poignant as I’m about to release Kaua‘i Storm, set in my homeland and the novel closest to my heart.
But a more recent best moment, also connected to Kaua‘i Storm, was when Chantelle Aimée Osman—my dear friend and editor of my first three Lily Wong thrillers—was too excited to simply email my agent and called me on the phone to offer a two-book deal at my dream publisher, Thomas & Mercer. I cannot begin to express the love, validation, and gratitude I felt at that moment and continue to feel today.
Awards, reviews, and accolades are awesome, but every best moment in my writing career involves meaningful relationships with old or new friends.
Isn’t that so nice? I’d personally trade all of my friends for more awards, reviews, and accolades, but I can see Tori’s side. And, as a side note, Chantelle Aimee Osman edited The Unrepentant and was absolutely wonderful to work with (she’s now with S&S).
To find out more about Tori Eldridge and her work, visit her web site. And pre-order Kaua’i Storm (out on 5/20/25)!
It's giveaway time! The winner of a copy of Kaua’i Storm is:
sha____c@gmail.com
Congrats, and I'll send you an email with more information soon!
One last note about the Crime Writers for Trans Rights auction. I did help organize it, but the real work came from the working committee of Sandra SG Wong, Jen Dornan-Fish (Ellison Cooper), Cheryl Head, Greg Herren, and Susanna Calkins, as well as the advisory board of John Copenhaver, Brenda Buchanan, and Robyn Gigl. They’re the real heroes and incredibly dedicated hard workers whose determination allowed me to phone it in pretty hard at the end.
Anyway, thanks for reading, my homies! Want to support Crime Fiction Revolution and more hard-hitting interviews I do with myself and features with other writers and book recommendations and my Gamestop membership? You’re in luck, because I accept tips! Or you can check out my most recent thriller, When She Left. I’m not picky.