Book Sale Conversations by Andy Scheer

 What could be more natural?

I assumed that anyone at the annual “friends of the library” used book sale was interested in books. And that they wouldn't mind talking about titles and authors, including other writers in genres that seemed to interest them.

So when I saw someone carrying a couple books by Dan Brown, I assumed they might like international thillers with a note of historical conspiracy So I asked if they were familiar with the novels of Steve Berry, and I pointed to a few titles on a nearby table.

As a compulsive reader, I'm always looking for authors who've written with style in my favorite subgenres. So I assumed anybody toting a stack of hardcovers at a used book sale would feel the same. In at least one case I was right, and I shared suggestions about a few authors, and received ideas in return.

I asked someone with three hardcover Dirk Pitt adventure novels by Clive Cussler, if she knew about the author's nearby museum, where he keeps the classic autos that make cameo appearances in the stories. She didn't know, and seemed pleased to hear about it.

When I took my bagful of books to the checkout area, I noticed a guy with two boxes of fantasy and sci-fi titles. I mentioned I hadn't seen any, and he pointed me to where I had overlooked them (on the far end of the table with romances novels). I went back and found two hardcover first printings by an author I collect. Except for his help, I would have missed those.

I realize that many dedicated readers are shy introverts. But we all aren't. The next time you're in a bookstore, don't be surprised if someone comments on the book you're holding. And if you opt not to answer or say much, I hope that person also understands. When someone is carrying a piece of media, it's just natural for some of us to try to be social.

Hiding, Finding Easter Eggs by Andy Scheer

Readers in the know will smile.

Last week I found an Easter egg. Not the type that gets hidden in the spring, but the kind some authors place in books.

In Death on a Vineyard Beach, Philip R. Craig needed a detective on Cape Cod. So on page 72, he writes the client had hired “a man named Aristotle Socarides.”

For most readers, that’s just another name. But for those in the know, “Soc” is the protagonist of a Cape Cod detective series by fellow New Englander Paul Kemprecos.

In the course of a novel, you need many supporting characters. So why not include some people you know?

When he was learning the craft, now-bestselling author Steve Berry met regularly with a writers group. Two of its members were Nancy Pridgen and Daiva Woodworth. In Steve’s second published novel, The Romanov Prophecy, his protagonist works for an international law firm: Pridgen & Woodworth.

For years, thriller writer Jack Du Brul has known book collector Wayne Valero. When Jack needed a name in Corsair for an Undersecretary of State for Mideast Affairs, the assignment went to Wayne’s wife, Cristie. Though Wayne knows all the co-writers for thriller grandmaster, Clive Cussler, he’s still waiting to find his own name in a novel.

That could be a good thing. There’s a well-known quote attributed to Mary Higgins Clark: “When someone is mean to me, I just make them a victim in my next book.”

The prize for the most-included name may go to Leigh Hunt. In a dozen or more of his Dirk Pitt novels, Cussler included his friend—often as a character who got killed in the prologue.

Or you could even include yourself in your own books, much the way Alfred Hitchock gave himself cameos in many of his movies. If you want a precedent for this, look again to Clive Cussler.

I was typing a description of Pitt and a classic car he was exhibiting at a concours meet. In the scene, he walks over and extends his hand to the old white-haired, bearded man who was exhibiting the car next to him. I wrote, “Hello, my name is Dirk Pitt.” The old fellow shook his hand and said, “I’m Clive Cussler.”

I immediately thought, Why did I do that? I meant to change the name, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed fun to leave it in. ... Now readers wait for me to show up.

You might not want to go that far, but your novel does have room for quite a few names. As long as you don’t defame someone, why not?

Write Like Yourself by Andy Scheer

I thought I’d done him a favor. But his email made me wonder.

I’d recently edited his manuscript. The book was powerful, especially for only his second novel. But he’d come to the task well prepared. And he was exploring themes that held his passion.

Now he was asking me about future novels. The next would be a sequel. But for the third, he was weighing a new direction. Rather than a novel set in familiar territory, he’d “like to move toward an international mystery/drama.”

After suggesting how he might take his main characters to an appropriate setting, I unintentionally planted seeds of doubt. I recommended he read a general market bestseller: The Columbus Affair by Steve Barry.

Since an international drama would be new to him, I thought he’d benefit from reading a stand-alone by a master of that genre. A co-founder of the thriller writers group, he sets the bar high for both story and craft.

That was the problem. “I’m about half way through it,” my friend said. “It’s a super fast paced read. It’s a great book.” Then he asked, “Do you think I have the ability to write something with that kind of pace and creativity?”

Time for some damage control. I suggested he view the Steve Berry novel as more than just a recent international thriller. It’s also Berry’s eleventh published book, created after he’d been writing fiction for twenty years. A well-practiced effort, it’s stronger and more complex his earlier novels.

My friend would be setting himself to fail if he tried to write like Steve Berry, James Rollins, Dan Brown, or anyone else. Yet if he wants to get published in that field, he’d be wise to consider what elements in their approaches might also make sense for him.

I suggested he learn what he can from masters of in the genre, especially where it stretches him. In his case, especially consider how these writers plan a complex plot, depending less on seat-of-the pants spontaneity.

But there’s a limit in reading top writers. Learn what you can from them. Incorporate what make sense. But don’t try to let another writer squeeze you into their mold.

If he learns from the best, rather than try to imitate them, the result will be a stronger story—that still sounds like him. And because it will spring from his deep faith, the story will resonates with themes often absent in international dramas.

Can you write like that? Don’t even try. Yet by learning from them—and incorporating your unique skills and perspectives—you may be able to write even better.

Other Writers’ Success by Andy Scheer

How do you view other writers in your genre: competitors? colleagues? supporters?

Would you view them the same way if your own publication and sales depended on their success?

Steve had been writing for a dozen years while holding down a full-time job. After one unpublished legal thriller, he moved to a genre he loved: an international thriller that blended action, history, secrets, and conspiracy.

But since the end of the Cold War, publishers considered the genre dead. “If you were John Le Carre, Ken Follett, Robert Ludlum, or Clive Cussler, you were fine,” Steve says. “But if you were ... trying to break into that genre, you could forget it.”

Then another writer, a few years ahead of Steve, got lucky. Dan had been published three times, but without spectacular results. But for book number four, he proposed something usual. Doubleday bought it—and thought it had the potential to go far.

Steve says, “Everyone looked at it and said, ‘You know, this is a little different. It’s action, history, secrets, conspiracy, international settings.’ Guess what I was writing? That’s exactly what I’d been writing all those years.”

With the hope that Dan’s book might open a new niche, Ballantine took a chance and offered Steve Berry a contract for The Amber Room—after his previous novels had received more than eighty rejections.

Dan’s book didn’t disappoint. “When The Da Vinci Code was published,” Berry says, “it just went through the roof. ... It brought the international suspense thriller genre back to life. And I got a break. I was in the right place at the right time at the right moment on the 86th time—when Mark Tavanti, senior editor of Ballantine Books, was looking for something to go with The Da Vinci Code.”

The Da Vinci Code “brought a genre back to life,” Berry says, “and introduced readers to a lot of writers they would otherwise never have seen or gotten a chance to read.”

What about you? If you keep hearing that nobody is interested in your genre, consider praying for another writer’s success.