Crime Fails to Pay or why past performance isn’t an indicator of future results

I’ve been swapping a couple of emails with Declan Burke, author of The Big O and Eight Ball Boogie.  I was trying to get hold of a copy of Crime Always Pays, the sequel of sorts to The Big O.  He’s ended up distributing it via Kindle having had all kinds of troubles with editors (e.g., leaving a company) and publishers (e.g., being taken over and slashing authors from the list; doing little to no marketing).  The result, not unsurprisingly, has been relatively modest sales driven principally by word of mouth.  Word of mouth can get you so far, but a bit of marketing rarely hurts a product and nor does a champion inside a company.  The sense is that those modest sales are now a bit of a millstone as they are viewed as an indicator of potential future sales on new works.   Having received loads of critical acclaim from reviewers and readers (see Declan’s must-read blog for examples), here is a very talented author seemingly marginalised by an industry that is increasingly seeking to de-risk their investment by judging authors and their works against a narrow set of criteria, rather than nurturing and supporting them.  There are plenty of authors and bands who have worked away producing acclaimed work for years, perhaps not making mega-bucks but nonetheless not losing anyone money, before going stratospheric.  If a condition of a writing career is immediate success then there is every danger of producing an entire generation of one book authors, killed off and demoralised before they’ve had chance to blossom into mature, successful writers with an established reader base.  It’ll also work to reproduce a certain kind of formulaic writing and stifle creativity and risk-taking – think of Hollywood film making at the minute.  I find it astonishing that I’ve had to write to Declan to ask for a copy of his book because I don’t own a Kindle and there is no way to purchase a paper copy.  This is a guy producing quality stuff, with a demonstrated track record of acclaim, if not mega-sales.  If I had the cash, I’d set up my own non-for-profit press with the express aim of giving talented authors an outlet as they build a readership and prepare to go stratospheric (or at least mid list).  My review of Crime Always Pays will appear in a couple of weeks.  Now I’ve managed to get my mitts on it, it’s slotted in near the top of the TBR.