A Special Report

All we hear nowadays is that publishers won’t look at unagented material anymore; the legendary slush pile is dead.

But it’s not true! Even if you don’t have an agent (and these days it’s harder than ever to get one), if your novel is completed you can start submitting right now. A number of publishers are not only willing to consider material submitted directly by authors; they’re actively looking and find many or all of the books they publish in this way. Why do some publishers perpetuate the myth that a novelist must submit through an agent? Perhaps because they know that if word gets out, they’ll be flooded. Perhaps that’s why their submission guidelines are often so well hidden on their Web sites.

Martha Jewett (my coauthor on The Marshall Plan® Novel Writing Software) and I have prepared a Special Report that lists these publishers, the categories in which they’re currently acquiring full-length fiction, and links to their author guidelines. We are constantly updating this list, so you may want to download it periodically to get the latest information. Just return to this blog and click on the link above.

As the author of thirteen murder mysteries and counting, and a literary agent who represents a number of mystery authors, I keep a list of “musts” for writing a compelling mystery that really holds together. Build all of these points into your mystery novel and your book will be stronger for it.

Make sure your sleuth has a compelling reason to want to solve the murder. Mysteries always work best when the sleuth has a strong, preferably personal reason, to want the murderer brought to justice. For instance, in my first mystery, Missing Marlene, Jane Stuart wants to find out who killed her son’s live-in nanny. In my mystery Evil Justice, sanitation supervisor Anna Winthrop wants to find out who killed a member of her crew because another worker, who she knows to be innocent, has been arrested for the crime. It’s not enough to say, “These are amateur-sleuth mysteries; that’s what she does.” There’s got to be good reason.

Make sure you have enough suspects. You can’t keep your readers guessing unless there is a large enough selection of suspects to choose from. Having too few suspects also makes it difficult to complicate your plot as you should. Remember that suspects can be either people your sleuth suspects, or people your sleuth isn’t considering but whom your readers will suspect because of clue’s you’ve dropped.

Make sure each of your suspects had motive, means, and opportunity. This sounds obvious, but be sure to give each of your suspects a compelling reason to have wanted the victim dead. Also make sure this person could have done it, physically; i.e., was he or she in the right place, and at the right time.

Place your sleuth in danger. Feedback from my readers has taught me that they most enjoy books in which the sleuth, as a result of her snooping, is put in danger, usually from the murderer who doesn’t want to be exposed. Many writers skip this element, but I think it adds a lot.

Teach the reader something new. Set your mystery in an industry or place readers may not know about. My Jane Stuart and Winky mysteries are set in the world of publishing and literary agents. My Hidden Manhattan mysteries feature little-known places in New York City, and also provide a lot of inside information about the sanitation industry.

Put in some really good twists. Readers love to be shocked. So at least three times in your story, spin your story in a new direction by inserting a shocking revelation or development. (Spoiler alert:) In Missing Marlene, I reveal that a murdered woman Jane thinks is Marlene isn’t Marlene at all, but her best friend with whom she traded places.

Keep the story moving. Mysteries aren’t overly long in terms of word length, so you really can’t afford to be leisurely with your writing. Keep the story moving by having a lot of actual plot action and not so much introspection and reacting to things. My trick is that I write nearly all of my novels in direct action rather than summary.

End with a bang. The classic Agatha Christie ending, in which Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple assembles everyone in the drawing room to explain exactly what happened and then unmask the murderer, won’t work nowadays. I always like to make the revelation of the killer a dramatic climax, sometimes putting my sleuth in jeopardy. At the end of my mystery Death is Disposable, the murderer chases Anna through the abandoned subway tunnels under Grand Central Station in order to ensure her silence.

Once the mystery is solved, wrap things up quickly. Once the murderer has been revealed, that’s pretty much the end of the story. Use the pages after the climax to do any leftover explaining, tie up any hanging threads and, if there’s a romance thread, bring your lovers together.

These aren’t absolute laws. They’re ways I make sure my books are page turners that keep readers wanting more from me. Try some or all of them and your amateur-sleuth mystery will be better for it.

The mystery novel has never been more popular than it is today. People love reading them . . . and writers love writing them. Editors are swamped with manuscripts and can afford to be extremely fussy as to what they take on. How can you make your mystery novel rise above the others and make an editor want to buy? Keep the following three vital points in mind when writing your novel:

Look for the Hook

In fiction, a hook is a way to promote a book through some aspect that has commercial appeal or provides publishers with a gimmick or “handle” that lends itself to publicity.

Your detective might have an occupation that is of high interest in the current culture, is especially timely, is interesting for its very obscurity, or is the same as that of the author. For instance, Patricia Cornwell’s series of mysteries featuring Dr. Kay Scarpetta first became popular at a time when public interest in the world of medical examiners had been heightened by such nonfiction books as Coroner by Dr. Thomas Noguchi, L.A.’s coroner to the stars, not to mention the tremendous public fascination with true crime. That’s Ms. Cornwell’s hook

For my first mystery series, I gave my amateur sleuth my own occupation—that of literary agent. This was my hook, something I could talk about in interviews. It was also something reviewers of my books often commented upon.

Hooks in fiction give publishers, booksellers, and the authors themselves a better chance to grab the attention of browsing book buyers.

Dig Into Your Characters

Today’s readers want richly textured characters, especially in the series detective. A clever puzzle for your mystery novel is important but not enough. We must know all of your major characters as people, just as we would know the characters in any well-written novel. For purposes of characterization, think of your book as a novel with mystery, not a mystery novel. Tell us about your characters’ pasts, their psychologies, their faults and weaknesses, their relationships to one another. Remember, it’s your characters who will bring your readers back for more.

Devise a Clever, Stunning Plot

Don’t settle for a plot device if you can recall seeing it in another book, in a movie, or on TV. Work hard to come up with something different. Granted, there are only so many ways to kill someone, but the canny mystery writer will give one of those ways a new twist. The same goes for motive. There’s no excuse for stale clichés; your plotting is truly your own and should bear your distinctive fingerprint.

Keep these three points in mind as you craft your next mystery and you’ll have a decided edge in this highly competitive marketplace.