Reconstruction Vol. 11, No. 3
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Interview with Gary Schulze Owner of Once Upon a Crime Bookstore
Gary Schulze has owned and managed the Once Upon a Crime bookstore in Minneapolis, Minnesota along with his wife Pat Frovarp since 2002. In 2009, Once Upon a Crime was voted as the “Favorite Mystery Bookstore” by the readers of CrimeSpree magazine, and in 2011 the store received a Raven Award from the Mystery Writers of America for “outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing.”
Both Gary and Pat write book reviews and “blurbs” for book jackets, and in April 2012 they will publish an anthology of short crime fiction, Writes of Spring to be published by Nodin Press in April 2012, to coincide with Once Upon a Crime’s 25th anniversary. A few weeks after appearing on a panel on “The Future of Publishing” at the Edgar Awards Symposium, Gary was kind enough to share his perspective on popular fiction with Reconstruction.
R: Gary, thanks for speaking with us. Once Upon a Crime is a "mystery" bookstore— how do you decide which books fall under this genre?
GS: It helps if there's a crime that's central to the story. The term "mystery" has become an umbrella for "crime fiction". They all don't necessarily contain a mystery: whodunit is often evident from the start, the mystery, as such, would then be in discovering motive, methods of apprehension, etc.
Publishers—especially the marketing departments—play a huge role. Jacket covers will often proclaim "The New Thriller from the author of...!!!" Also, their choice in who is picked to write the blurbs is designed to lead the reader. It can all be misleading and confusing. Some so-called thrillers aren't thrilling at all. I had an author say at his signing that his book wasn't a thriller because it contained "character development."
R: In stores like Barnes & Noble, fiction is generally divided into “Mystery,” “Science Fiction & Fantasy,” “Romance,” “Westerns” and of course “Literature.” Do these genres hold up in your mind? Do you see authors following through on genre formulas, or do many authors cross genre boundaries? Has this changed over time?
GS: I've always wondered why there are several specialty stores in the mystery and sci-fi genres, yet none in romance and westerns. Romance is hugely popular, yet no bookstores I know of specialize in it.
Historically, of course there's been lots of cross-over authors—Robert L. Stevenson and Charles Dickens come to mind—who have written in many "genres" (and I think there didn't exist such a distinction back then, but these were "popular authors" in their time. Recently, we have had many authors who cross genres: Jonathan Lethem (sci-fi, fantasy) Elmore Leonard (mysteries, westerns), Loren Estleman (westerns, horror, mysteries) John Banville (who's writing mysteries under an acknowledged pseudonym," Michael Koryta , who seems to have fully made a switch from mystery to supernatural. The Irish author John Connolly began with ambiguous mysteries with a hint of the supernatural, and gradually has come to a sort of fusion of the two.
So yes, it is happening—perhaps more so, maybe not.
R: Does a specific genre change over time, or is it static, like a formula?
GS: There are certainly formulaic elements in place since the beginning of story telling. (Boy meets girl, boy kills girl, boy meets another girl...) Most crime fiction is an extension of "morality plays": an Everyman caught up in a situation beyond his control, who somehow finds the courage to prevail. And essential to most crime fiction is that evil is punished. The Thomas Harris/Hannibal Lecter novels are somewhat unique in this regard. They became hugely popular in spite of the fact that we root for the bad guy; it's the evil prison psychiatrist who gets punished.
There will always be a new way to tweak a formula. There are certainly plenty of anti-heroes in fiction. But the hero always has a moral center, even if it's skewed a bit. The first person narrator in Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me comes to mind as an exception. Could be a reason for it's popularity because of its uniqueness.
R: You mention the connection between morality plays and crime fiction—how would you describe the dominant morality of most crime fiction? Has this remained consistent?
GS: Bad guys meet their deserved end; good guys win. I think that is time-honored. Few authors depart from this and become successful.
R: What characteristics most influence whether a book will be popular?
GS: Wouldn't publishers like to know the answer to this one? They keep chasing after prior success, trying to identify the formula. Hence, the flood of The Da Vinci Code clones, and the present rush to translate anything Swedish. The only "common" characteristic I can think of is well-drawn, engaging characters. To me, the huge popularity of the Stieg Larsson The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo books is the girl. She is a tremendous character (for a girl!—I say that in jest, but it's true: she's the strongest leading female character I can think of in this genre). The story itself is actually boring, except for her scenes.
The books that sell the best in our store are those that Pat and I both like a lot. We're primarily a "hand-sell" store; customers come to us for suggestions. We stock only token quantities of most of the "bestsellers."
R: Do you see any distinction between the way that "popular fiction" and "literature" are written, published, and purchased?
GS: This is one of my biggest complaints with the industry: marketing. James Patterson and Steven King don't need multi-million dollar sales campaigns. Beyond the occasional "hand of God" or Oprah pick, we're clueless. I'd like to think that writers write what and how they want. It's the editors, agents, publicists, and publishers who do what they can—often shamelessly—to mold it into some formula for success. There was, I think a New Yorker cartoon in which an author was sitting with his agent, and the agent said, "Thrillers are HOT, maybe if you started each sentence with "Suddenly..!"
Sad to say, we have some customers who insist on reading the jacket flap copy before deciding to take our suggestions. Often, the copy contains plot spoilers, and sometimes, I don't think that whoever wrote it actually read the book. It's fairly common knowledge that many "blurbs" are totally bogus. The blurber is doing a favor for the blurbee. Some of it's gotten out of hand, where the same author appears on dozens book with a blurb. How do they find the time to read all these book? We call them by the affectionate term of "blurb whores."
R: As stores such as Once Upon a Crime—local bookstores as well as stores that cater to a specific genre—have given way to large chains and websites such as Amazon, how have differences between "popular fiction" and "literature" (in addition to the role and significance of genre as a whole) changed?
GS: I hate to see the distinction being made between "popular" and "literary." Why not "popular" and "unpopular"? We, of course, have put ourselves out there as a "genre" bookstore: “Once Upon a Crime." We sell "Crime fiction." I'm tempted to say that it's called "popular fiction" for a reason, but there's a stigma on "genre fiction" that it can't possibly be "literature." It can be, and often is, both.
I think, as the chains, ebooks, and Amazon keep expanding their market shares, stores like ours become even more important. We small, independent "niche" stores are able to lead readers to what we think is truly good—stuff that doesn't get the marketing budget, media or web attention. And as to e-readers replacing books as we know it—I see it as increasing readership. The percentage of adults who read more than two books a year is pathetic. Maybe the ease and convenience of electronic media will improve that. If your slice of the pie is getting too small, make a bigger pie.
R: A number of our authors are interested in the question of gender in popular fiction. Have you noticed any distinction between the works purchased by men and women over time?
GS: Haven't noticed a change. Generally, the "he-man," super hero protagonist (such as Lee Child's “Jack Reacher” novels) is more popular among female readers. Possibly a "bad boy" effect. My wife Pat says that the surest way to kill a series is to have the character develop a serious relationship—or worse—get married. And we have lots of male customers who will only buy books by men, and female customers who only read women authors. One thing that has changed over time is that women authors are not disguising their gender (unlike Craig Rice, P.D. James, etc.). But there still is a male bias in publishing. The female author Alex Kava couldn't get published, after countless attempts under her given name, until her agent suggested "Alex." It was picked up immediately. It was several books into the series before they used her picture on the book.
R: To what degree do specific genres reflect gender norms? You mention that difficulty that women have had in publishing crime fiction—has that changed recently? Do you see more strong female protagonists?
GS: There has been recently a notable increase in female authors and protagonists. Especially now since the popularity of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Some of these are especially good. I hope the trend continues. There is an organization, "Sisters in Crime," which was formed in 1987 by Sara Paretsky and Sue Grafton with the express mission to promote female authors. Notably, they wanted to see more review exposure for female authors. They've been tracking reviews, and the percentages of female/male review space is gradually working its way towards equality.
R: Outside of the merits of the storytelling, how much do you think outside influences—cultural, historical, and political developments—affect the popularity of different books (and genres)? Do your sales trends ever reflect major political and social trends/events?
GS: Actually, there's a lot of popular fiction that's just crap. I think of it as a fast food mentality of reading: you know going in that it’s not going to be great, but at least you get what you expect.
There have always been books reflecting social and political trends. Most of these don't stand up over time, but they draw interest at the moment—Abu Ghraib, the Taliban, the Cold War. Books are surely in the works, and probably abandoned now, about Osama bin Laden (I just read one). I talked to one author years ago who had written a book about the Unabomber, only to have him found within weeks of his finishing the book. He was a bit depressed about it. The book was due to come out, then got cancelled.
So as to topical popularity—sure, the books get noticed, the marketing departments have a great hook, and people buy them. Yet, for the most part, the books have a short life. There was certainly a drop in the number of Cold War books written after the Wall came down, but those have seen resurgence lately, and are being successfully packaged as historical novels. Of course the big thing now, following 9/11, is terrorism. Thomas Harris wrote the hugely popular Black Sunday in 1975, about a domestic psychopath who talks Mid East terrorists into supplying explosives. And financing a mass murder at the Super Bowl.
Generally, I see two main factors in the appeal of genre fiction. The first is escapism. People read thrillers to be, well, thrilled. The other I like to call “vicarious revenge.” This falls under the general idea above of “Good Guy wins, Bad Guy loses”: revenge against terrorists, revenge against sociopathic bosses, revenge against all sorts of bad behaviors… actions taken by the protagonist that we average folks don’t have the capability or nerve to take ourselves.
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