On the one hand, Archer Mayor is the beneficiary of good news. His 18th Joe Gunther novel, CHAT, will be the last one published by Grand Central Publishing, but St. Martin's Press has picked up the next three books in the series. On the other hand, the entire backlist, 17 books strong, is out of print. So, as Publishers Weekly reports, Mayor has devised a unique solution: publish the previous Joe Gunther novels himself.
“To me it makes perfect sense,” said Mayor, who publishes a book a year while working part-time as a death investigator for Vermont's chief medical examiner and as a deputy sheriff. “The whole thing about getting mad and getting even, I'm doing something in between. I'm trying to be part of the solution.” He's optimistic even though he had to mortgage his home and find investors to make AMPress happen.
Mayor said he was encouraged to bring back his books in part because of his consistently good reviews. The New York Times Book Review has called him “one of the most sophisticated stylists in the genre.” And Publishers Weekly has given six of his books starred reviews. He is also a recipient of the New England Independent Booksellers Association Award for Best Fiction. Despite the attention, his books still average only 18,000 copies in hardcover.
Mayor will also be touring extensively in the Northeast over the next two months, and neither Hachette (Grand Central's parent publisher) nor St. Martin's seems concerned about Mayor's
efforts on behalf of AMPress. “As far as I know,” said Mayor,
“everybody understands that it doesn't matter what book takes off. We
all benefit.”
And as Lee Goldberg points out, "I'm sure that lots of other mid-list authors with a big back list and a
new book in the offing will be watching how he does, but I doubt that
many of them have the financial resources or the guts to attempt the
same high-stakes gamble."
Good for him! I'm sure readers will be grateful, particularly those who discover him through the SMP books and want to know what else he's done. I'm also betting that if he has any success whatsoever, someone else will pick up the rights - in fact, I'm really hoping that this is all a gambit to show how successful a backlist can be and what a good deal it would be for some smaller press.
Posted by: Clea Simon | October 09, 2007 at 11:19 AM
The fact that Mayor's publisher was (apparently) uninterested in his backlist is a brutal sign of how difficult it has gotten for authors of series mysteries. It is a very challenging business climate these days.
Posted by: David J. Montgomery | October 09, 2007 at 11:38 AM
Well, you all know what my opinion on this would be.
Way to go, Archer!
Now the best way to self publish, in his case, would be to buy 10 ISBNs from Bowkers for 350 bucks, and then go directly to Lightning Source who charges about 100 up front and then 1 cent per page.
Stacey
http://www.staceycochran.com
Posted by: Stacey Cochran | October 09, 2007 at 02:36 PM
"...everybody understands that it doesn't matter what book takes off. We all benefit."
Imagine the revolution in the publishing industry if every author decided to take this route? Fascinating and gutsy. I wish him well.
Felicia Donovan
Author, THE BLACK WIDOW AGENCY
www.feliciadonovan.com
Posted by: Felicia Donovan | October 09, 2007 at 07:40 PM
Best of luck to Archer, an all-around good guy and a fine writer. Not to mention one of the more entertaining speakers you'll come across if you've ever shared a podium with him.
Posted by: Dan | October 10, 2007 at 08:38 AM
Can I guess what he's going to talk about at Crime Bake next month? :)
Posted by: Stephen D. Rogers | October 10, 2007 at 11:22 AM