G.M. Malliet is a former American journalist and copywriter who attended Oxford University and holds a graduate degree from the University of Cambridge. In 2003 she was one of three writers who won Malice Domestic Grants. Ordinarily, that would sound like a ticket to the Big Time, but therein lies an instructive tale of how difficult it can be to get published, as well as the vagueries of the publishing industry.
Malliet, new honor in hand, took her manuscript to agents and editors, but was unable to find any interest in her homage to the traditional cozy which she at the same time lovingly parodies. Finally she got a nibble from an editor at Midnight Ink, an imprint of Llewellyn. Not happy with sitting around and waiting, she and her husband started a writers club, and she started working on short stories.
When Death of a Cozy Writer, featuring Detective Chief Inspector St. Just and Detective Sergeant Fear of the Cambridgeshire constabulary, was finally released in July of this year, it debuted to good reviews, even making the IMBA bestseller list for August. Mystery Scene commented, "Malliet's skillful debut demonstrates the sophistication one would expect of a much more established writer. I'm looking forward to her next genre-bender, Death and the Lit Chick," and Kirkus added, "Malliet's debut combines devices from Christie and Clue to keep you guessing until the dramatic denouement," while Publishers Weekly applauded her "droll debut."
I heard Malliet talk at a recent writers club meeting, where she regaled us with some of her stories about the highs and lows to be expected in the publishing process, and asked her to share a few tidbits for the blog:
GMM: That’s such a hard question to answer! I'd read all the Agatha Christie books, and all the Robert Barnards—he writes updated Agatha-type books that are also riotously funny. Also, I'd read all of Caroline Graham’s books several times over. Oh, and Sarah Caudwell—how I wish she were still around. Ms. Graham seems to have gone on to other interests than writing another Barnaby book. So I figured if I wanted something else to read that even came close to resembling these British books, I’d have to write a book myself.
IRTM: You indicated that even after you'd won a Malice Domestic Grant and Llewellyn/Midnight Ink expressed an interest in the novel, it took about a year for them to actually buy it. What did you do in the meantime?
GMM: Actually, it took about a year for them to express an interest, and a couple more months for the editorial review board to okay buying it. This seems agonizingly slow, but it's actually about standard for the industry. This was in the days when my publisher was accepting unsolicited mysteries "over the transom" and they were buried in a deluge. They no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts; I got in just under the wire with that.
As to what I did in the meanwhile, I cultivated a Zen-like patience, and I took up yoga. Seriously. I was convinced L/MI would buy the book eventually (their acquiring editor had a reputation for liking the kind of book I'd written—this is important, because so many people were and are looking for thrillers). I knew a traditional British cozy would be a tough sell but for some reason I felt strongly that this editor would want it. Anyway, "just in case," I started a different series set in the D.C. area, I entered writing contests and won or finaled in a few (having a deadline helps me get going sometimes), and I wrote short stories. The short stories appear in a couple of anthologies now (Chesapeake Crimes 2 and 3, sponsored by the Sisters in Crime chapter), and I believe they were also instrumental in shoring up my credentials as a real, serious writer, not just someone who took up writing as a lark to see what would happen.
IRTM: You had a change of editors, didn’t you? Can you describe what that was like?
GMM: I think there's a misconception that acquiring editors spend all their time rewriting books submitted to them, so that switching editors would be a shock. This is very far from the truth, although I have heard of agents putting in that kind of effort for clients. Editors don't have time for rewrites or critiques, and I’d imagine few agents do, so a book needs to be as perfect as you can manage before it ever gets to them. As I recall, my editor had only one question: Did anyone ever ask Sarah (one of the suspects) for her alibi? I couldn't remember and neither could anyone at L/MI, so I just had my detective DCI St. Just say something like, "Well, Sarah claims she was in the library." Problem solved. I've also been lucky in that the titles I've chosen have stuck. I didn’t know this was a rarity in the industry, but I've learned that it is. [IRTM: She even had input on her first book cover, adding the little gargoyle/grotesque at the top.]
IRTM: Knowing what you do now, would you change anything about the process for getting that first book published?
GMM: To go further back: I'd have completed the entire book before I submitted it for the Malice Domestic Grant (now renamed in memory of the much-missed William F. Deeck), even if it meant waiting another year to submit. That grant was really how I got my first toehold. But I think I had about fifty pages completed when I submitted, and fifty more when I was lucky enough to win the grant. You have to be ready to "pounce" on these things with a full manuscript, whether submitting to an agent, a contest, whatever ... it's a fast-moving business and the attention spans are short. Again, a Zen-like patience is good. Take up yoga.
IRTM: What's next for you in the future?
GMM: The second book in the St. Just mystery series comes out in April 2009, and it's called DEATH AND THE LIT CHICK. I should mention that both of these books poke gentle fun at trends in the publishing industry. (I can’t imagine why this subject is so much on my mind.) The third book is in the works and will be out in 2010 ... this one is less about books and publishing, and more about St. Just in his natural habitat, which is the University of Cambridge, England.
The route Malliet took is obviously one of several available to authors, but these days approaching editors as an unagented author is getting harder to do. Midnight Ink, as Malliet mentioned above, no longer even accepts unagented submissions. Malliet's timing and instincts turned out to be good, fortunately, and she has a multi-book contract in her series to show for it. However, she's still learning to adapt to the crazy world of publishing, having consulted with legal resources and considering an agent search. She's also hoping the second book in the series coming out in April 2009, which is another send-up (this time of the chick lit mystery genre and of the publishing industry itself), will find success despite the marketing department's choice of a cover which looks more like actual chick lit than satire.
Malliet and her husband live in Virginia but spend as much time as possible in England, the setting for the St. Just mysteries. She's currently working on her third installment in the series. Her web site is http://www.gmmalliet.com/.
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