My interviewee today is Danuta Reah with whom I co-authored
The Writers’ Toolkit several years ago. I mention that just so I can flag that
Fantastic Books’ editors took it up as their recommended text, badgered us into an expanded
second edition called
How to be a Fantastic Writer and that new edition is just out.
Danuta is a crime novelist. She was Chair of the
Crime Writers Association a few years ago.
However, her specific expertise is in English Language and linguistics, and
this adds a particular weight to her views. As well as being a novelist, she’s a
book reviewer; the sort with a growing following. She pulls no punches but to
be reviewed by her can give a book a real boost.
What came first, the academic writing or the novels?
She tells me, ‘I started out writing academic stuff - a
general book about text analysis, a book about the language of newspapers. I
learned a lot about writing in general that way - learning how to structure a
long piece of work and, of course, with text analysis, you learn a lot about
the writer's craft from studying the way other writers do it. I used a lot of
what I gained from that in The Writers' Toolkit and later in How to be a
Fantastic Writer.’
In what ways does her academic writing impact on her novels?
‘I know some people get a bit nervous that my novels are
going to be very “literary” (whatever that means) and that they won't enjoy
them - and then they are surprised to find that they're tense, suspenseful,
scary - not the same as an academic text book at all.’
‘I do use my academic background. I have written three
novels that make use of my work in forensic linguistics - the analysis of
language in the context of crime - identifying the writer or speaker,
identifying forgeries, voice recognition, that kind of thing. I used it a bit
in Silent Playgrounds, and even more Night Angels.’
The mystery in her most recently published novel,
The Last Room,
centres entirely round the forensic investigation of language.
In this series of interviews, I have spoken to some people
who write in genres I’ve never heard of. Danuta writes fiction in one of the
most popular genres. Does being part of a big all-embracing genre cause any
problems?
‘There's a tendency to get lost in the crowd. I know when I
go into a book shop and look at the crime section, I'm overwhelmed by the
choice and let myself become too influenced by the table displays and book shop
recommendations. My reviewing has led me to authors I've thoroughly enjoyed,
but probably would have missed on the shelf. I shouldn't say this as a writer,
but there are too many crime novels out there and I suspect we are close to “peak
crime”.
‘Another big problem is fashion and “the next big thing”.
The problem is, editors want more of what sells, forgetting that quite often,
the next big thing comes from a publisher who was prepared to move away from
what everyone else is publishing at the moment. People forget sometimes that
Stieg Larsson's books, which were very much the next big thing a few years ago
are really structured as very traditional crime novels, but they seemed very
new because no one was publishing that kind of thing at the time - and of
course, Larsson did it very well. Right now, it's all psychology, unreliable
narrators and final plot twists - great fun when handled by a good writer, but
frustrating when a writer gets it wrong, and you suspect the book was written
that way because the writer was pushed into it by the publisher rather than
made that choice themselves. I don't want any more unreliable narrators, and I
certainly don't want any more final “twists” that I can see coming from a mile
away.’
Danuta has been published by a variety of publishers from
the huge conglomerates to the small independents. I ask if she has any words of
wisdom for other authors supposing they were in a position to choose?
‘It's horses for courses really. Small publishers are a lot
more loyal to their authors and will work harder to help you publicise your
books. The downside is a lot of them don't really have the clout with the
bookshops, which makes it tough. You have to get out there and sell the book
yourself. Amazon may be seen as the death of book shops, but it's also a
lifeline for small publishers and for mid-list authors to get their books out
there. Big publishers are pretty ruthless. If you don't increase your sales
book on book by a certain amount, you're out, and there's a Catch-22 in this in
that less than satisfactory sales means you get far less sales input.’
I ask if Danuta has ever self-published. When she says no, I
ask why?
‘I don't know why. I know a few writers who got fed up with
traditional publishers and went for it - but you have to be a very good
self-publicist and be able to put in a lot more time than you do with a
traditional publisher. If you're self-publishing ebooks it can be very
profitable as once you've paid off your initial costs, you can just keep on
selling. Self-publishing hard copy is very tough. It's expensive, you have to
get your books into bookshops, in front of reviewers and in front of your
audience. That's very hard and I would only consider that if I already had a massive
market.’
Danuta’s next novel is called Life Ruins, and it turns out
it has had expressions of interest from both a small publisher and one of the
big 5. Which will she go with?
‘Until a contract’s signed, my lips are sealed.’
Find out more about Danuta and her writing on her
website.
