 Mystery: September 23, 2015 Issue [#7231] |
  Mystery
This week: Understanding Your Mystery Market Edited by: Jeff  
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"The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense
of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery."
-- Anaïs Nin
Mystery Trivia of the Week: Vince Flynn was an author of over a dozen political thriller novels featuring Mitch Rapp, an undercover CIA counterterrorism agent. He was also a story consultant on the fifth season of the television series 24. In 2013, he lost a three-year battle with prostate cancer, but his Mitch Rapp series of novels will continue with Kyle Mills slated to fill in for Flynn. The first of Mills' novels is due out next month, with two more in the works.
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UNDERSTANDING YOUR MYSTERY MARKET
From time to time, I'll attend a script pitching event, where aspiring screenwriters get to come in and sit down with industry executives and pitch their screenplay ideas in hopes that one of us will like what we hear and want to read their script. One of the things I've noticed in going to these events, though, is how often people pitch ideas that I just know won't make a good movie. Sometimes it's not even because the idea is inherently bad; it's because the idea isn't a good fit for the medium in which the author wants it produced.
At these kinds of events, there will inevitably be someone who pitches a general legal or police procedural. The problem with these concepts isn't the concepts themselves; it's the fact that very few people are interested in making those kinds of movies anymore, unless they're built on the foundation of a very popular existing property (like a John Grisham novel) or have the interest of a big star (like Tom Cruise or Jennifer Lawrence). The reason they're not really popular as movies any more is because we can see these stories told so often in both books and television.
Someone once told me that the difference between a movie and an episode of a television series is that, "An episode of a TV series is a day or everyday event in your character's life, where a movie is literally the most important thing to ever happen to your character." When you watch or read a procedural like CSI, Criminal Minds, Law & Order, Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series, James Patterson's Alex Cross series, etc., you're watching a day in those characters' lives. Those cases they deal with may be larger than real life standards with psychopaths and serial killers on the loose, but the fact is the heroes are going to solve the case by the end of the book or episode, and the episode next week or the next book coming out will have the same characters deal with another villain in another case. Even when it's "the biggest case of your character's life," it's still largely about them doing what they do on any other day of the week.
So why is this a problem for movie makers?
Part of it has to do with availability. If you look at the number of books published every year (approximately 300,000) and assume that only 1% of them are procedurals (which is likely VERY low), that's still 3,000 new procedural novels every year. And on top of that, your average procedural television show runs 13-25 episodes per season. Assuming there are ten procedurals on the air (again, likely a VERY low estimate), that's between 1,300 and 2,500 episodes of procedural television. So we're looking at around 5,000 "case of the week" type stories entering the marketplace every year. That's a lot of content! A movie with the same "day in the life" approach is competing with those 5,000 other stories out there.
The other part of it has to do with cost. A publisher might spend $50,000 (including editing, proofing, graphic design, marketing, printing, etc.) to get your book on shelves. Your average episode of television might cost $100,000 to $1,000,000 to produce. Your average movie, though? That'll run you $10,000,000 to $100,000,000. Combined with the mass availability of other procedural stories, and it's not hard to imagine why a movie studio might be reticent to make a "case of the week" procedural as a feature film when it costs a lot less to tell that story in a different medium.
It's important to be aware of the types of stories consumers want in whatever your particular medium of choice. Even if you want nothing to do with the motion picture business and only want to write stories, it's important to research what's selling and what you're writing. Especially on a site like Amazon where a variety of material can be put up for sale, it's worth knowing whether that novella you're thinking about writing sells to an audience. For example, do mystery readers prefer Kindle Singles that are procedural or standalone? Among mystery readers in Kindle's Short Reads section, do most of the successful mystery writers publish in the 15-minute, 30-minute, 45-minute, 1-hour, 90-minute, or 2-hour+ category? If you eventually want to translate this into another type of media (like comics), would it be better-suited as an open-ended regular comics run, or as a standalone graphic novel?
A lot of writers make the mistake of assuming a genre market is the same throughout. You write mysteries, so mystery readers must want to check it out. But if the "Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense" category can be broken down into subcategories as specific as Amateur Sleuths, Financial Thrillers, and Vigilante Justice Crime, it's a safe bet that issues of structure and content also come into play.
You should definitely write the kind of stories you want to write. But also make sure you're taking the time to understand that there are different types of markets within the mystery market. It's not just one big empty warehouse with uniform space throughout. It's more like the floor of a convention center, with little booths set up every few feet, each one containing a different product for sale. Your chances of success will increase dramatically if you can find the area of the convention center floor where people are gathered to check out the thing you want to write. It might also help you manage your expectations and more carefully craft a direction to go in down the line, if you're ever at a point where you have an opportunity to expand your brand into other types of media.
Until next time,
Jeff
If you're interested in checking out my work:
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I encourage you to check out the following mystery items:
EXCERPT: Another world, another day, another dawn.
Several billion trillion tons of superhot exploding hydrogen nuclei rose slowly above the horizon.
There is a moment in every dawn when light floats, and creation holds its breath.
But then the moment passed as it regularly did on the planet Precinct 15, without incident.
EXCERPT: Detective Search sauntered into the FIFTEENTH PRECINCT. It was busy as usual. As he passed the booking desk, several police stood beside men, some not completely dressed, and women in lingerie, their boobs hanging out the top. All were in hand cuffs. Search chuckled. Must have raided a place of prostitution, he thought to himself. He remembered those days. Now he was in homicide. He had earned a Gold Badge and was proud of it.
EXCERPT: The shopkeeper, a sprightly old man with a shock of white hair, returned from the back room holding a small wooden box. Inside a dull silver ring sat nestled on a green velvet cushion. He placed it on the counter in front of Leah, hugging the box with his hands.
“This is an extremely special ring,” he said, smiling down on it. “It will be perfect to write about for your history project. The other ones I showed you were replicas of the ones worn by kings and queens, but this one is different. It—“
“It’ll do for me,” Leah said, snatching the ring from its cushion. She barreled out into the clammy night under the sign that read Unique Gifts and Antiques and sprinted down the empty street. She had made it two blocks when she heard the shopkeeper shouting behind her.
EXCERPT: The crumpled notes feel greasy against my outstretched palm. I swallow back the nausea rising in my throat and pocket the bills. Wordlessly I turn and leave the tiny corner store, my pocket heavier by $250 – the price of protection on Main Street.
I nod to the large men on the corner, letting them know their services aren’t needed here this week. I guess the beating Mr. K was given last month taught the lesson it was meant to. My money has been on time ever since. As it should be.
EXCERPT: “Calm down, Judy. If Pete isn’t paying us tonight, he’ll probably do tomorrow.” Xiomara Hernandez said into the receiver pressed to her ear. She walked briskly - and away from the club she bused tables - her worn out sneakers making a squishing sound on the dark street. Eight stories of tired brick red building stood on either side of the paved road, and, as usual it was deserted and quiet; the steady dripping of spoilt plumbing her company.
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Feedback from my last newsletter about unrestrained writing:
Osirantinous  writes: Wonderful advice, Jeff, about taking time out to truly write for oneself. Writing relaxes me, and it's nice to go with the flow and not worry about word limits, prompts, grammar, or what other people think. Just getting a fresh idea onto paper is like a new lease on life. Thanks also for highlighting my novel's prologue; that was a lovely surprise!
You're very welcome, and thanks for taking the time to write in! 
Quick-Quill  writes: My given name is Christina. The only people ever to use it were mother when she was mad at me and my grandmother. Oh the bank teller calls me by that name. When I decided to publish I did so as Christina. I don't write one genre so it gives me varieties to used whatever genre I write. Tina is still writing.
I'm the same way... the only people who call me 'Jeffrey' are my parents or my wife when they're angry, or people who are reading my name off an official document or form. 
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