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Three Myths About Published Mystery Authors
By Gail Lukasik
My debut stand-alone mystery The Lost Artist (June 2012) centers on a
quest for one of the greatest lost art treasures of sixteenth century America.
I loved discovering the little known and forgotten historical facts about
American history that are part of this book’s journey.
Now with third books published (Destroying Angels, 2006 and Death’s Door, 2009), I’ve learned that
being a published mystery author isn’t what I expected. I’d like to debunk some
commonly held myths about mystery authors.
1) Mystery authors make big money.
Unless you’re a best selling author
like Sue Grafton or Patricia Cornwell, most mystery authors make a modest
income from their books. I’m doing a little better than breaking even. You have
to factor in promotional materials, conference and travel expenses, and a
publicist. My advance is
modest and because my publisher caters to libraries, the book comes out only in
hardcover and the print runs are about 1200. Even though I’m able to sell my
paperback rights to Harlequin for their Direct to Consumer book club, my audio
rights to Books in Motion and have put the first two books in the Leigh Girard
series out as e-books, the cost of promotion and travel wipes out most of my
profit.
2) Talent and persistence are all you need to succeed
You
definitely need talent and persistence. But you also need luck. It’s impossible
to guess what the next best selling book will be. Ten years ago who knew that
vampires would be so popular today. That’s luck. And luck is the one thing you
can’t control.
So
write the book you need to write, the one you’re passionate about. You may get
lucky and it’ll be the next best seller. But if it’s not, at least you will
have written the book you wanted to write, the book only you could write.
3) Anyone can write a mystery.
Just like any piece of writing, it
takes skill to write a mystery. And to obtain that skill you need to read
deeply in the genre and you need to hone your craft. There are certain “rules”
in mystery writing. This is not to say you can’t break these rules, but you
need to know what they are first before breaking them.
You also need to know how to write a
compelling scene, how to write memorable characters, and how to construct a
believable plot line.
Here’s
the elevator pitch for The Lost Artist:
When
Rose Caffrey, a struggling Chicago performance artist, uncovers four nineteenth
century murals in an old southern Illinois farmhouse, her quest to discover the
unknown artist leads to a hunt for one of the greatest lost art treasures of
sixteenth century America. What Rose never expects to find are crimes going
back over four hundred years with the potential to transform American
history--if she can escape the fate of the other lost artists before her.
Gail
Lukasik www.gaillukasik.com
The Lost Artist is available at:
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