Editor Interview: Brash Books

The best crime novels

Outside of the major publishers, we really like the books that Counterpoint, Thomas & Mercer, Soho Press, Hard Case Crime, Oceanview and Stark House are putting out.

So many....if we exclude the authors that we publish (we only publish books that we LOVE) or work with personally (I've co-authored books with Janet Evanovich, for example), or who are close personal friends, or family members (my brother Tod Goldberg is very successful and terrific writer), my favorites include Larry McMurtry, Charles Willeford, John Sandford, Harry Whittington, Elmore Leonard, John Irving, Jonathan Evison, Thomas Perry, Michael Connelly, Frederick Manfred, Elmore Kelton, Robert B. Parker, Ace Atkins, Lawrence Block... I could go on and on and on.

There are a lot of companies out there reprinting "out of print" crime novels and new books. We have a niche. Our motto is "we publish the best crime novels in existence." That means, in the case of reprints, that we're primarily interested in award-winning, highly-acclaimed mysteries, thrillers, and spy novels. The books we reprint have won, or been nominated for, such honors as the National Book Award, and genre-awards like the Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony...or have earned acclaim from *major* publications (NYTimes, Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, etc) and well-known, highly respected authors. That's our niche... the best of the best. We are very very very selective in the works that we reprint. We aren't interested in reprinting self-published books, novels published within the last decade, or the new sequel to a book (the latest in a series) that's still in print with another publisher.
In terms of new work, we're looking for writers with strong voices and fresh stories free of cliches and not bogged down with exposition. These books have to be every bit as good as our proven reprints...and the unbroken string of rave reviews from Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, etc. for our new novels shows we're on the right track. We're very picky -- less than 5% of 4000 manuscripts submitted to us in the last decade or so have made the cut.

1. Have a fresh take on the subject.
2. Do a cliche-pass: remove any dialogue, prose, or plot cliches.
3. Do NOT frontload your book with dull exposition.
4. PROOFREAD your manuscript before submitting it.

Fresh take on a crime story
A strong voice
An opening chapter that pulls you right into the action and doesn't let go. (Action doesn't mean violence, it's a catch-all for whatever the conflict is that's driving the novel)
A clean, proofread manuscript
Not a single cliche. We don't want to be up the river without a paddle on our way to a three-ring circus where the sky is falling and everything is heading to hell in a handbasket. Also spare us the private eye in the crappy office with the bottle of booze in his drawer who gets hired by a beautiful woman. We get that submission every day. Also spare us the tortured homicide cop battling drug/alcohol addiction, struggling with a divorce or a dead spouse/child, and mired in political battles with his department. We get that one twice a day :-) And unless you have a brilliant new take on a serial killer story, one that hasn't already been done in the 300 episodes of CRIMINAL MINDS, similar shows, and countless novels, please don't submit it to us. To say we are burned out on serial killer stories is an understatement.

They don't follow our guidelines. They send us science fiction, memoirs, horror, YA, true crime and romance...and they send us the entire manuscript. Send us what we want, not what we explicitly say we *don't* want.
Or they send us a cover letter that begins with "I'm seeking representation for my book... " That's an automatic rejection. We're publishers, not a literary agency. If you're so lazy and careless that you're sending us your standard agent query, why should we bother reading your submission?

We like to know if the author has been published before...especially if they have won, or been nominated for, key awards in our genre...or if they have some background in what he or she is writing about, like being a cop, prosecutor, medical examiner, journalist etc. .

The first two chapters, though it's usually pretty clear to us in the first few pages if it has potential. If we like the first two chapters, we request the manuscript. If we aren't grabbed within the first fifty pages, it's a pass.

First, we have to LOVE it. Then we have to see if it fits in with our list. For instance, have we published too many books with similar themes, story or voice? We don't want one private eye novel or police procedural after another. Or to publish two dark comic thrillers in a row. Is it commercial? Is it promotable? Is the author someone we can work with...not only editorially but in promoting the book? If the author has a backlist, is it still in print or out-of-print? If its out-of-print, can we acquire those titles before publishing her new book?

My partner Joel Goldman and I read every submission. If one of us doesn't like it, its dead. So if he reads something before I do, and doesn't like it, its a pass. I don't have to look at it. But if he really likes it, he'll pass it along and I'll read it (This works both ways, of course). If we both like it, we'll ask for the manuscript. We both have to love the book for us to acquire it. Luckily, most of the time, we agree. On those rare occasions when we don't, it's a pass. We don't try to convince each other to acquire a book one of us isn't immediately enthusiastic about. We often get multiple agented and unagented submissions a day and we divvy them up and keep a detailed spreadsheet on the status of all of them.
Joel tends to handle the business side of things... negotiating contracts, dealing with the accountants, lawyers, printers, etc. I tend to handle the advertising, promotion, covers, editing, and book/author scouting. That said, it's not cut-and-dry. He'll often get involved in advertising and I might be pulled into a negotiation.

It depends on what shape the book is in. There are some we hardly touch... and there are others where ask for substantial editing before we agree to publish the novel. Of course, we tell the author upfront what our creative concerns are and if they are willing to make the necessary changes. For example, one novel we published to great acclaim originally came in as an 125K word manuscript that we, over several drafts, cut down to 75K words. Another book we recently published was so polished that we simply sent it straight to the copyeditor as-is.
So the short answer is, we'll do a development edit, if necessary, and then it goes on to a professional copyeditor who works with all the major publishers (and has edited our own novels). We used to hire development editors, too, whom we also worked with on our own books, but we've ended up working with the authors ourselves. There were too many instances where a developmental editor's vision didn't align with our own or what we consider the unique "voice" of our publishing company.
We are authors ourselves. We treat authors the way we want to be treated. We respect the author's voice and vision. That said, we also won't publish a book that we don't LOVE...or that we don't believe can succeed commercially. It's our money on the line...and we are a small house. We take the risks seriously.
If there is a fundamental disagreement between us and the author on the changes we think are necessary, then we simply won't publish the book (but that's never happened -- we work that out before any contract is signed). If it's a disagreement over copyediting changes/corrections/suggestions, the author's decision always stands. We want our authors to be happy with the book and with us.

We submit all of our new releases for any awards they qualify for -- like the Edgar (Mystery Writers of America), the Shamus (Private Eye Writers of America), the Thriller (International Thriller Writers), the Ned Kelly award (Australian Crime Writers Association), and even the Spur (Western Writers of America), among others. We won't enter books for any awards that charge an entry fee. With rare exceptions, those are almost all scams.
We're proud that so any of the new novels we've published have won, or been finalists for, all of the awards mentioned above, as well as some others. Two of our authors -- Barbara Neely and Max Allan Collins -- were even honored as MWA Grandmasters after we signed on to publish there books.

Our company was initially funded by investments from me and Joel Goldman... but has been self-sustaining since our third year in business. By that I mean, we're funded by the sales of our books. That's why we are so picky about what we publish.

The promotional world is always shifting beneath our feet. Discoverability is a huge problem. What worked for us last month may not work this month. So we are constantly shifting and re-evaluating our promotional strategy. In general, we've virtually abandoned our print advertising in trade publications (like PW, Kirkus, etc) because we don't seen a return anymore on that substantial investment. We advertise on all social media platforms (paid advertisements in addition to postings on our own channels), some Bookbub advertising, as well as paid advertising on Amazon. We send books and galleys to genre conferences nationwide for inclusion in attendee book bags. We send out notices to our newsletter subscribers. We put digital galleys up on Netgalley to reach media, reviewers and librarians...and to generate Amazon and Goodreads reviews. But, again, that could all change tomorrow morning.