God dag

God dag, mig namn er GM Klubben, och Jag har skrev en Svensk blockbuster sätta inne Stockholm.

That is Swedish for, "Good Day, my name is GM Malliet, and I have written a Swedish blockbuster set in Stockholm."

At least I think that is the proper translation. I have no idea why the online translator changed me from GM Malliet to GM Klubben, but, hey, I wanna be a paperback writer so I'm fine with that, so long as klubben doesn't mean "smelly swordfish left behind in the sauna for several days."

The reason for my sudden willingness to change is this story in the NY Times: "A Scandinavian Hit Sets Publishers Seeking More." The runaway success of the Stieg Larsson trilogy has publishers scrambling to acquire rights to books by other Scandinavian authors who for one reason or another are extremely popular yet never achieved the runaway success of Larsson--authors like Camilla Lackberg, Henning Mankell, and Jo Nesbo. Karen Fossum (Norway) and Arnalder Indridason (Iceland) have also contributed to the chilly thriller phenomenon. The trend, slow-moving as an ice flow, seems to have started with Peter Hoeg's 1992 Smilla's Sense of Snow.

The Times reports that the Larsson books so far have sold 6 million copies in the United States and 35 million copies worldwide. The tragedy, as everyone must know by now, is that Larsson did not live to know of his phenomenal success. That alone is a scary, heartbreaking story that touches the core of every author of every type of book.

The Times goes on to talk about Jessica Case, an editor at Pegasus Books, who is quoted as giving Ms. Lackberg "one of the highest advances we’ve ever paid" for her American debut of The Ice Princess, a book first published in 2003. I must say that as an author I find this inspirational.

Of course, all authors know that chasing a trend in publishing is a sure recipe for disaster. I could change the protagonist in my current book into a Swedish priest, and change the setting to some gloomy town in Scandinavia, include a gorgeous female sidekick with tattoos, and publish as GM Klubben, but something tells me it just wouldn't be the same.

I missed the vampire boat, being sailed so successfully by Charlaine Harris and our own Sue Ann Jaffarian. I missed the whole Harry Potter scene, and the Dan Brown-type religious thriller. I also missed the chick lit trend, typified by Bridget Jones' Diary, but I was just in time to parody the trend in chick lit mysteries in my own Death and the Lit Chick. Does that count?

You have to wonder, as you ponder those 35 million copies worldwide, what the next great country or theme will be. Any guesses from blog readers or my fellow MInkers?

 p.s. This morning's Washington Post also carries an intriguing article on the Scandinavian invasion.

Photo from

www.gadling.com/2007/01/24/finland-s-snow-hotel/

is of the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden.

Photo of village is from Scandinavia Travel.

Not A New Career

For over 20 years I worked in Silicon Valley for companies large (IBM, 400,000 employees at the time) and small (UpShot, where we started with three employees). A couple of years ago, I decided to change careers and become a full-time writer.

The joke was on me. I didn’t really change career paths as expected. Instead, I just veered a little. Let me explain.

When you’re coming up with product ideas in the high tech world, you look for a niche that will make your product distinctive and competitive. I did the same thing when I wrote my first two novels. I set them not in New York or even San Francisco but amidst the ambition, greed, and wealth of Silicon Valley where almost no crime fiction had been set before. Silicon Valley crime fiction has become my niche as a writer.

Next, and most important of all, when you’re seeking financing for a high tech company, you need a compelling story, you need to draw the listeners in and have them buy into your dream. You need to expand on that initial elevator pitch, too, with a business plan. Your objective is to get venture capitalists to invest their time, money, and resources into making your story come true. And when you are writing fiction? Your objective is to get a publisher to invest time, money, and resources into turning the story you tell in your manuscript into something tangible, a book.

In telling your story, both investors and publishers are searching for the next blockbuster, for the next Google or the next Da Vinci Code. I’ve had a VC tell me that I had a terrific, useful idea but it was only a $250 million idea, and he was looking for multi-billion ideas. Similarly, I’ve had a manuscript rejected with this comment: “Good as this is, I think it would quickly fall into midlist realm for us here.” Here’s the problem in both cases: No one knows what will make a blockbuster. What investor looked at Facebook when it was a roster for undergrads at Harvard and imagined it with 400 million users? And what about Stieg Larsson’s books? No one, no one had a clue that they would be an international publishing sensation including him. What you want in both cases is to bring a great idea to life. Those who just look around for blockbusters are going to spend too much on what they invest in and miss great stories that end up much bigger than they’d imagined.

I’ll just hit one more too-close-for-comfort-similarity. It’s not enough to build a great software product nor to write a great book. You have to spend your time and ingenuity promoting them. I don’t know what drug Emerson was on when he said, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” Right. There are so many new products, so many new books that you need to stand out. You need to get word of mouth going. How? Who knows? But I do know it’s as hard standing up at a trade show as it is at a bookstore.

Entrepreneur? Novelist? Loved both careers (or one-and-a-half of them), but maybe I should have stuck with my original dream – playing center field on the Giants.