Harrogate debates the crime writer's career

The challenges for writers of sustaining a long career in the face of discouragements, struggles with impostor syndrome, and the place of celebrity authors in the crime writing landscape were among the issues discussed at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate at a panel chaired by novelist and festival programming chair Denise Mina on Friday (22nd July).

Mick Herron, who won Theakston Crime Novel of the Year for Slough House (John Murray) the night before, spoke on the panel, alongside fellow crime-writing veterans Andrew Taylor and Martin Edwards, and Adele Parks, who now writes crime after a long career in women’s fiction.

Mina opined that a lot of the crime writer’s life was "being quite humiliated and brassing it out"; Parks agreed, remembering an eight-hour early-career signing slot at Books Etc during which she sold a grand total of two copies, and Edwards recalled an event when he and fellow writers had been comprehensively upstaged by a local line-dancing class.

The current financial pressures on authors were a theme, with Mina noting that the ending of the Net Book Agreement was "Vatican II for us—huge", because of the effects of discounting on author incomes in the subsequent years. She said: "It makes a sustainable career very difficult. You see people who write four fantastic books and then disappear." Andrew Taylor said he had been able to give up his day job on the basis of an advance for his first novel, 40 years ago: "Now, I’d say, ’Keep the day job.’"

Herron said he thought he was "a beneficiary of something that doesn’t happen now", in that he was able to continue writing and publishing despite the fact that his first six novels weren’t huge successes. Edwards agreed, saying: "It’s tougher, you are not given as long to establish yourself. If you get the contract but you don’t get the sales, it can be difficult."

Herron talked about the struggle of the writing process itself, saying: "Being discouraged happens a lot. Writing a novel, you go up and down, up and down... you start to recognise the patterns in it, and that however hard you feel it doesn’t matter, you have to write through the ups and downs. If you look back, it doesn’t show on the page if you were up or down [when you wrote it]." He added: "If I weren’t being paid, I would still do the writing."

Edwards said: "The great thing with writing is to believe in it, even if the reviewers don’t believe in it, and the publishers don’t believe. Having a day job helps. I allow myself a grumpy 24 hours if something negative happens but then I get back on the road. I too would write if I wasn’t published."

Parks said: "My coping mechanism is, ’I’ll go and write because that will make me feel better.’ I know I’m living the dream. I don’t believe in writers’ block; there must be policemen’s block and nurses’ block, when you wake up and think, ’I can’t be arsed.’ But [writing] is brilliant and I feel very lucky. That said, 60,000 words in and I go to my husband and say: ’I’m a failure, the book’s so bad this year.’" Her husband then reminds her that she said the exact same thing with the previous book, she added.

Taylor argued: "We all have impostor syndrome, no matter how many books we write. We are in the grip of an addiction, an obsession, we can’t do anything about it."

On the same day that former "Pointless" presenter Richard Osman announced that he planned a new crime writing strand, alongside his hugely successful Thursday Murder Club series, the place of celebrity authors in the crime landscape was raised, with Mina saying: "I read a lot and I’m incredibly opinionated about writing. One in 10 books I think is good. Some of the celebrity writers I really like, and really like their work, and I think they should come into the community." 

Herron concurred, saying: "It’s not a zero sum game, they are introducing new readers into the community." 

Edwards added: "It’s a waste of time to think about others’ success. The mere fact one author sells a zillion copies more than I do doesn’t affect me in the slightest. Avoid the corrosive effect of ’it’s unfair’." Taylor noted: "Publishing is a machine for making money. If a celebrity book isn’t very good, it may hit the market with a marketing surge, but it won’t last."

While Osman wasn’t at the festival this year, the presenter tweeted: "Anyone at Harrogate for @TheakstonsCrime? From 6pm if you visit the bar in The Swan and tell them ’Elizabeth sent me’ you’ll get a free drink on me. I promise you this is not an elaborate prank. Joyce recommends the rosé!"

However a planned festival appearance from Frankie Boyle, whose Glasgow-set crime debut Meantime is forthcoming from Baskerville, was cancelled.