Keep Those Cards & E-Mails Coming

By Paul--

Several friends e-mailed me Monday to say they’d seen a commercial for KILL ALL THE LAWYERS on ABC’s Good Morning America.

I missed it, but I’m told the spot will run every day this week. A big thank you to the folks at Bantam who arrange (and pay for) this.

As for those newsy, talky shows...I once appeared on GMA. For reasons I cannot recall, I was interviewed in front of the shark tank at the Miami Seaquarium. (No lawyer jokes, please). My one scheduled appearance on NBC's TODAY show was bumped by breaking news. Recently, I've appeared on Court-TV's Catherine Crier show,which has an upscale, book-buying audience.

I don't know if my fellow bloggers agree, but I think a single appearance on network or cable television sells very few books. Different story if you're saturated on all the networks, plus Larry King on CNN, plus "Fresh Air" on NPR. Which usually means you have the hottest non-fiction book around. (For a while, that meant having "O.J. Simpson" in the title).

How, then, do you sell books...especially if your name is not known to the general public? A great title helps. What's the best title in the history of publishing? I think you'd be hard pressed to beat THINNER THIGHS IN THIRTY DAYS. Tells you all you need to know And alliteration, too.

Abbie Hoffman's STEAL THIS BOOKwas a damn good title, reflecting both the tone of the work and the tenor of the times. The first sentence: "In a country such as Amerika, there is bound to be a hell of a lot of food lying around waiting to be ripped off."

Ah, but times have changed. As someone who was gone from publishing for eight years, here's something I've noticed. Much faster and more intense communication with readers. All thanks to websites and e-mail. I published my first novel, TO SPEAK FOR THE DEAD, in 1990. In those Dark Ages, readers would contact authors by sending letters to publishers, whose addresses are not always easily obtainable. Weeks or months later, the publisher would send off a box of letters to the author. By the time you responded, the reader may have moved, died, or forgotten she wrote you in the first place.

But now...

With e-mail, it is far easier for readers to contact writers. In the early 1990's, most of my mail seemed to come from prison inmates seeking counsel or cigarettes. They were all innocent, by the way, so I would refer them to James Grippando, Esquire.

Now, I get e-mail the day a reader finishes a book. Or, in one case last weekend, BEFORE the reader even starts the book. Herewith (as lawyers say), the note from a male reader (or at least, a buyer) of KILL ALL THE LAWYERS.

Paul, I just got back my judgment and divorce decree from my two year divorce case. I got royally screwed by the judge and I now have a sizeable judgment from my first two lawyers and over priced accountant on top of it. I have not read your book but the title caught my eye. I am really shocked that the system is as corrupt and inept as it is. Keep up the good work.

Well, I don’t disagree. The system is “corrupt” and “inept.” I would only add “humorous.”

There’s a sign that hangs over the bench in every Miami courtroom. “We who labor here seek only the truth.” Taking note, Jake Lassiter, my first series character, responded, “There oughta be a footnote: subject to the truth being concealed by lying witnesses, distorted by sleazy lawyers, and excluded by inept judges.” Cynical, you say? I prefer to think of Jake as brutally self-aware. As he once said of himself and his brethren at the Bar: “They don’t call us sharks for our ability to swim.”

Trivia question: Who portrayed Jake Lassiter in the 1995 NBC Movie-of-the-Week? Answer: Gerald McRaney, who currently plays the villainous George Hearst on "Deadwood."

Another e-mail this weekend caught my attention. The subject line read: “Your first ‘Solomon vs. Lord’ novel was an embarrassment.”

"What!" I screamed. Then I read on. The e-mail came from a sergeant in the Canadian Army who said HE was embarrassed because he’d burst out laughing while reading the book on the bus. He promised he would start KILL ALL THE LAWYERS as soon as he finished Sandra Brown’s CHILL FACTOR. “She’s pretty good,” the sergeant writes.

Fine with me. Just keep those e-mails coming.

Paul