Writers pressured to crank them out.

Darryl Livingston

22 June 2008

The journal factory : writers pressured to crank them out In an age when reading for pleasure is declining, journal publishers increasingly are counting on their largest moneymaking writers to crank.

In an age when reading for pleasure is declining, journal publishers increasingly are counting on their largest moneymaking writers to crank out books at a rate of one a year, right on schedule, and occasionally quicker than that. Several top-selling writers, like John Grisham and Mary Higgins Clark, have turned out one journal annually for years. Not that writers are being explicitly stressed, but dear advance selling plans are increasingly tied into the expectancy the most profitable writers will have a new journal out at approximately the same time annually. "It's no problem, as long as you do not have a life" expounded Patricia Cornwell, writer of the terrifically successful Kay Scarpetta crime thrillers. "The Scarpetta [manuscript] that's due out Oct seven is due in a number of weeks, because they should reserve the storefront property and pay for it. "There's pressure to treat writers like Coca-Cola" announced California thriller writer Brad Meltzer, who was asked to make public annually but refused. "There's great pressure on writers to copy at least annually, and some can do it more frequently" asserted Meg Ruley, a Big Apple literary agent. It's all part of an ever-fiercer competition for a shrinking number of journal buyers in the age of mass electronic entertainment. In the assorted suspense genres serial killers, global conspiracy, love suspense and standard investigator fiction the public's memory can be short. "If you do not write a journal a year, it may not be devastating, but it assists in keeping your face out there" recounted thriller writer David Baldacci, who asserts he does not mind the pace. Michael Palmer, writer of medical thrillers including "The 1st Patient" wrote a journal each 2 or 3 years with his prior publisher, but his sales commenced to say no. He had written a 2nd journal when his 1st novel, "A Drink Before the War" was outlined in 1994. "I did it ["Prayers for Rain" in 1999], but the week it was broadcast I realized what would have made it an actually good journal. It's what led me to scribble 'Mystic stream. ' " He took 2 years, made public it in 2001, and it was his largest journal.