Byline: PATRICIA WARD BIEDERMAN, TIMES STAFF WRITER
Press kits from publishers tend to be as austere as a nun's nightgown.
Typically they consist of a blurb about the new
book, biographical
material on the author and his or her photo,
tucked into a utilitarian
cardboard folder. Once in a while, the publisher
throws in some little
promotional item. The press kit for Janet Evanovich's
last book, "Two
For the Dough," came with a purple fruit-shaped
key holder, a visual
pun on the name of bounty-hunter heroine Stephanie
Plum.
But the press kit for Robert Crais'
new book, "Sunset Express," is a
veritable treasure trove of tschokes, including
a spiffy black baseball
cap, "Sunset Express" pins and, my personal fave,
a neon orange plastic
lizard. The gaudy reptile was immediately hung
by its tail in a place of
honor in my kitchen.
It was the lizard that prompted me to phone
Crais' publisher, Hyperion,
to find out what was going on here.
Crais, who lives in Sherman Oaks,
is a former Emmy-nominated TV writer whose mystery
novels feature a
wisecracking Angeleno private eye named Elvis
Cole. Cole is an unrepentant
smartass who likes women, children and cats,
does tai chi on his deck in the
Hollywood Hills and has a daunting sidekick,
Joe Pike, so laconic he makes
Spenser's buddy, Hawk, sound like a chatterbox.
The reason for my call was a suspicion, which
Hyperion confirmed, that the
publisher was actually putting both thought and
money (albeit money used to
buy plastic lizards) into marketing Crais.
Talk to almost any writer and he
or she will launch, with no more prompting than
the Ancient Mariner, into a
bitter tale about his or her last book, published
only to disappear without a
gurgle into the vast sea of books issued and
unpromoted every year. About
50,000 new titles appear annually, and the majority
are left to languish and
die by the very houses that bring them into the
world.
Since the first Cole book, "The Monkey's Raincoat,"
appeared in 1987 and
garnered an Edgar nomination as well as Anthony
and Macavity awards,
Crais fans have been waiting for his books to
take off the way so many less
deftly written mysteries have in recent years
(you know whose they are).
Although Crais doesn't say so, publisher
indifference may be a factor.
Bantam, the publisher of the first four Elvis
Cole novels, didn't even bother
to send Crais on a book tour, which seems
especially odd given that he is
both personable and still looks, at 42, like
the guy everybody in high school
had a crush on.
But Hyperion, one of Disney's many branches, has
big plans for Crais,
publisher Bob Miller makes clear. When the company
started four years
ago, Miller says, it made a long-term commitment
to transforming a carefully
chosen group of writers from cult favorites into
brand-name authors. The first
person the company began grooming was James Lee
Burke, Edgar-winning
author of a series of thrillers set in Louisiana
featuring recovering alcoholic
Dave Robicheaux. Others whose careers are being
cultivated by Hyperion--
all writers of suspense, because they come with
a base of hard-core fans to
build on--include Laurence Shames, Edna Buchanan,
Ridley Pearson and
T. Jefferson Parker.
Miller said he learned of Crais
through one of Hyperion's editors and its
publicity director, both of whom were big fans.
What the publishing house
looks for, Miller says, are "immensely
charming authors with enormous
talent." No writers unwilling to chat nicely
with the public and sign books
'til their hands cramp need apply. "We've found
that touring is a critical piece
of the picture in building these authors," Miller
says. For the current book,
Hyperion has sent Crais on a 25-city tour.
(He was in Minneapolis the day
I wrote this.)
As Miller explains, "The industry tends to shy
away from building authors
over time." But Hyperion feels that these writers
have the potential to become
major players and that investment in them now
will pay off in the future. When
Crais signed with them, he was selling
fewer than 10,000 copies per book,
Miller says. Hyperion shoots for doubling sales
with each new title. "Sunset
Express," Crais' second book for
the company, has already sold more than
30,000 copies.
One of the things the company does is spend money--about
$ 150,000 to
promote "Sunset Express." The process began in
January when lizards were
mailed to 1,200 bookstores. "We just wanted to
get people wondering what
the heck it is," says Miller, explaining the
rain of reptiles. More substantively,
the same bookstores received three advance copies
of the book, instead of the
usual one, in hopes that more store staff would
read it, like it and recommend it
to customers.
Hyperion takes a systems approach to building
its writers. One aspect of the
process is, Miller explains, "to establish a
look for each author." Hyperion has
come up with what it thinks of as a distinctive
Crais look, which appears on
the covers of his books and on his promotional
materials. Cole is wry and
ironic, Miller points out, and both the turtles
on the cover of the previous
Cole novel, "Voodoo River," and the lizards on
the current one reflect what
Miller terms "a wry use of animals." The neon
colors are "hot L.A. colors."
In contrast, Burke is widely regarded as a literary
stylist and has elegant covers.
Besides controlling the look of the books, Hyperion
is committed to controlling
when they appear. The publisher started a paperback
imprint so it could coordinate
the soft-cover publication of the author's previous
hardback with the publication
of the new one (with complementary covers,
of course). Hyperion also tries to get
authors on a schedule that will maximize the
impact of their books. Burke used to
publish in the spring. When Hyperion moved his
publication date to early August,
when fewer new titles are flooding the market,
Burke broke onto the New York
Times bestseller list for the first time. Now
readers know that if this is August
they can expect a new Burke and the publication
of the last title in paper.
Writers such as John Grisham are so famous their
books all but sell themselves.
But Miller says it is enormously gratifying to
nurture the career of a deserving
lesser-known writer and see the effort and commitment
pay off in regularly rising
sales.
"We're doing this out of a long-term belief in the author," he says. "It's a leap of faith."
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Hyperion has spent
about $150,000 to promote
"Sunset Express,"
written by Robert Crais.
The promotional materials include
hats and lizards--
the plastic animals were mailed
to 1,200 bookstores in January. (NOT SHOWN)