To Be (Shelved), Or Not

“Why can’t I get your books in (name your favorite chain bookstore)?”

It’s a complaint we hear from time to time. The public may not be aware of it, but not all publishers are linked with Ingram or Baker & Taylor, the distributors of choice for most of the chain bookstores. It’s not my purpose to get into the reasons here. Just stating the fact, ma’am.

My response to the complaint is usually to inform the person my books are available from the publisher, from Amazon and numerous other on line sources or directly from me.

They also have the option of going to a real (i.e., independent) bookseller who can, and will, order the book from the publisher (who offers discounts and other provisions on a par with most of the standard distributors). So why won’t the chains do this? Got me. Maybe they’re locked into contractual obligations. Maybe it’s just bad business judgment.

Until recently I sold my books in a local independent which, unfortunately, was forced to close its doors this year due to the economy and competition from the chains. Since there are no other independents in the vicinity, I made another stab at the local chain store.

Though the manager found mine in Books In Print (the essential bibliographical tool for libraries, booksellers and publishers), she said my publisher wasn’t available through her distributors. I suggested ordering through the publisher. She said they couldn’t do that.
What if I provided the books on a consignment basis with a return provision? She shook her head. “Have your publisher link with our distributor,” she urged, “then we’d be glad to carry your books.”

I find the situation frustrating. I’ve heard similar tales from others. Some say it depends on the manager and store, that some are more amenable.

I realize no store can carry every published book. But it seems to me good business sense to carry the books of a local writer with an established platform and whose books have had good reviews, a sales record and a retinue of repeat customers. But I’m only a writer. Maybe the chains think it is good business to have potential customers go elsewhere to buy.

Would I still like to be on their shelves. Sure. As long as readers can still find me, though, I don’t have to beg for it.

Fourth in Series

“Being Someone Else,” fourth in the Sticks Hetrick mystery series is scheduled for release today, July 15, by Whiskey Creek Press, www.whiskeycreekpress.com.

Some people believe violence is foreign to our nature. Dan ‘Sticks’ Hetrick, retired chief and consultant to the Swatara Creek police department, knows better. We put a lid on our natural tendency to violence when we started living in groups, devising moral codes to hold it in check and allow us to live in harmony with others. But, deep down in the Id, there is always that tendency to violence.

When an out-of-state reporter is found murdered in the restroom of a disreputable bar the tendency to violence spirals in the rural Pennsylvania community, and the investigative trail keeps bringing Hetrick and his team back to the family of a wealthy doctor who has returned to his hometown in retirement.

Hetrick and his protégé Officer Flora Vastine are joined by an old friend from his State Police days as they unravel old secrets and mysteries in a tale with as many shocking twists as a country road.

If you haven’t read any of the other books in the series, now is a good time to start. Others in the series are “Something In Common,” “Cruel Cuts” and “Corruption’s Child.”

Review snippets for the series:

“Lindermuth does a wonderful job of bringing his fictional small Pennsylvania town to life by getting us into the minds of a multitude of characters. I enjoyed Lindermuth’s writing and the story itself was interesting and without a dull moment.” Judy Clemens, author of Three Can Keep a Secret, Crime Spree Magazine, www.crimespreemag.com

“J.R. Lindermuth doesn’t write fiction. He writes life! There are twists and turns in every chapter.” Anne K. Edwards, author of Death on Delivery, www.mysteryfiction.net

“Lindermuth has magnum sizzle. Reading him is like a fresh bullet fired from a newly minted gun.” Eric Meeks, author of The Author Murders.

The Secret Ingredient

Name your favorite novel.

Now consider what makes that novel stand out from others.

I’ll wager for many of us the answer will be character. Your particular favorite character may differ from mine. But many will cite Emma. Or David Copperfield. Ahab. Atticus Finch. Holden Caulfield. A dozen others who have achieved immortality in our imagination.

So what is it about our particular favorite character that resonates?

Again I’ll wager the answer is because the author has created a character who is as real to us as any flesh and blood person we’ve ever met. So how the heck did he/she do it and can we mere mortals hope to emulate such talent?

The answer is simple and involves no secret ingredient hidden from the hoi polloi.

Back at the beginning of the 20th century a physiologist named Jakob von Uexkull coined the term umwelt to describe the technique of stepping into another creature’s world. What he described was, in fact, nothing new but a revival of a lost art. Hunters did it from the beginning of time. In order to hunt a creature the successful hunter becomes, in essence, that creature. He enters its world and thinks as it does.

A nifty trick. But can anyone do it today?

Writers also have been doing it for a very long time.

This secret ingredient has another name. Empathy.

Webster describes it as: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this.

Simple.

Not really. But it’s a talent which can be improved upon with practice. Do you think Dickens was capable of creating David Copperfield the first time he picked up pen to write? Of course not. Emma was not the first (or best) of Jane Austen’s creations.

All it takes is imagination and practice.

Being Someone Else

Whiskey Creek Press (www.whiskeycreekpress.com) will publish Being Someone Else, fourth in the Sticks Hetrick mystery series, on July 15.

Some people believe violence is foreign to our nature. Dan ‘Sticks’ Hetrick, retired chief and consultant to the Swatara Creek police department, knows better. We put a lid on our natural tendency to violence when we started living in groups, devising moral codes to hold it in check and allow us to live in harmony with others. But, deep down in the Id, there is always that tendency to violence.

When an out-of-state reporter is found murdered in the restroom of a disreputable bar the tendency to violence spirals in the rural Pennsylvania community, and the investigative trail keeps bringing Hetrick and his team back to the family of a wealthy doctor who has come back to his hometown in retirement.

Hetrick and his protégé Officer Flora Vastine are joined by an old friend from his State Police days as they unravel old secrets and mysteries in a tale with as many shocking twists as a country road.

I’ll be posting sample chapters in the coming weeks.

As noted, this is the fourth in the Hetrick mystery series and I’m now at work on the fifth (tentative title, Practice To Deceive). If you haven’t read them, now’s a good time to start. The novels are available in print and electronic form, including Kindle. Other novels in the series are Something In Common, Cruel Cuts and Corruption’s Child.

In a review of Corruption’s Child in the summer issue of Mysterical-E, Montiese McKenzie said: “It's a well-written and short book but it leaves readers wanting more of these characters and this town. From one page to the next, you aren't sure just what's going to happen but in a good way. There is a buildup to a slightly predictable but no less exciting climax and when the mystery is solved, it's breathless and fantastic.” You can read the full review here: http://www.mystericale.com/index.php?issue=current_issue&body=file&file=book_reviews.htm

And, by the way, my short story, “An Undesirable Customer,” is in the same issue: http://www.mystericale.com/index.php?issue=current_issue&body=file&file=customer.htm