I read this Irish Times article a few days ago about how Irish writers are not setting their books in…Ireland. Odd. I’m a big fan of the Irish setting. Books set in or around the Troubles is even better (Adrian McKinty). I mean, any book that is set in Dublin or Galway, I automatically buy it. It saddens me to discover that *some* Irish writers don’t care to set their books in Ireland. John Connolly is quoted as saying:
“As a young writer,” Connolly wrote in his essay contribution to 2011’s Down These Green Streets: Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century, “I could think of few subjects with which I wanted to engage less than the nature of Irishness, or the Irish situation . . . Had I set my first novel, Every Dead Thing (1999), in Dublin, it would have become, by default, an Irish novel, not a crime novel.
And what is wrong with that? Apparently everything:
There are Irish authors who are happy to set their stories at home, of course. But the word filtering down from the higher echelons of the big publishing houses in the US and the UK is that Ireland isn’t a “sexy” enough setting to sustain a commercially successful series. “I used to think like that until Artemis Fowl took off,” says Colfer. “The first Artemis book was set in a single house in Co Dublin, so that kind of blew the ‘non-sexy Ireland’ theory out of the water for me.”
Isn’t sexy enough? I recently read Adrian Mckinty’s post about why his books are so hard to obtain in the US. His novel, Falling Glass was rejected by every major US publisher.
Rejected by every publishing house in America for reasons such as “not commercial enough,” or “too Irish” or “not universal” or “too difficult for an American audience” Falling Glass still has not been published in the USA.
Disappointing and this is what I have to fight against. Publishers speaking for readers like me and you know what? They are wrong especially when it comes to Adrian Mckinty’s books. It is so frustrating when you have people in positions deciding what books are commercial enough or good enough for the US market. I guess I should be happy that Jo Nesbo is here at least *sarcasm*. Yes, I do realize that publishing is a business. I just think about how many books I’ll never read because they are not “commercial enough.” Often I’ve had to exploit loopholes to obtain books that my fellow readers in the mystery community enjoy reading because in the US over half are not even available here in any great abundance. So it depresses me that some Irish writers are reluctant and are discouraged from setting their stories in Ireland. Sad. What do you think?
I’ve had the same experiences as Adrian. Book after book being rejected because it was set in Ireland (too small a market, not commercial enough, too parochial, already too much Irish crime writing saturating the market, etc). My last rejection from a big NY publisher was: ‘I really liked this book, but the market for Irish fiction is too small’ I have been advised by my agent to write big commercial thrillers set elsewhere. Which doesn’t interest me, to be honest. I don’t understand how The Twelve was commercially viable in the US, but not The Cold Cold Ground. Both are great books.
I loved The Cold, Cold, Ground and can’t fathom why the people-who-know-everything didn’t think that the book wasn’t viable in the US either Rob. It had everything in it I thought to make it worth reading. Pity. The readers are the biggest losers here. I say stick to your guns and don’t settle.
Interesting. Bernadette has sometimes written about how Australian authors are told not to make their books too obviously Australian in setting or they will not sell abroad. I am usually against the tide so you won’t be surprised when I write that I read books “because” of their sense of place, the more unusual or little-known the better.
An example of Irish along the lines you mention is Claire McGowan who is very much to the fore on Declan Burke’s blog Crime Always Pays as a new Irish talent but you’d never think she was Irish from reading her debut novel The Fall – set in London, sort of romantic fiction with a vague crime plot in it somewhere, and no Irish characters or element.
I’m with you Maxine. Setting is just as important as everything else.
Actually, I’ve just thought, an Irish author who does both well is Alan Glynn – his excellent crime novel Bloodland starts in Ireland and part of the plot continues there, but the novel is very international in scope and setting.(His previous one, Winterland, stuck to Ireland though, and was equally good).
I think I will re-read Alan Glynn.
It’s funny but if I were to be totally honest the setting of ‘The Cold Cold Ground’, if not putting me off didn’t inspire me to start reading it immediately. Which is a shame because this book couldn’t have been set anywhere else and it is an excellent read. I guess we are not just reviews/bloggers but readers with our own prejudices about what we like and don’t like. And it’s not usually a country thing per se. I just didn’t feel I wanted to read a crime story set in The Troubles.
But I couldn’t have been more wrong, so mea culpa.
Wow, that’s really depressing. If Irish novels won’t sell, what will? After all, there’s probably more attachment and nostalgia about Ireland in the US than for many other countries. Of course, maybe that’s the problem. People want the Leprechaun Ireland rather than the real one? Or publishers think they do?
Thanks for writing about this, K.
And here I am, searching for any and all Irish crime novels, especially Belfast. Although the Book Depository (and sometimes Amazon) makes finding them in print easy enough, digital is harder because of georgraphic boundaries. I’ve wanted to read Cold, Cold Ground ever since it came out. Stupid, stupid book industry and publishers. They haven’t been paying attention.
In my opinion, it depends on what you, as the reader, like most to read. I had originally set my novel in Ireland but after numerous discussions I came to the conclusion, that as a writer, I needed to write what I loved most! My first love is crime thrillers, my second love is to have a male lead and my third would be a preference for the setting to be the USA – so that’s where my novel is headed. BUT, I do also read crime fiction by Irish writers set in Ireland and Norway and Sweden and with a female lead too. It depends on the mood and there’s nothing like variety . . .
Hi Susan and welcome to the blog. I read all over as well and prefer novels set outside the US myself. I agree with you about what you’re in the mood for reading as I read based on my mood as well. Right now it’s across the pond.
I have had the same responses as yourself and Adrian, Rob, from publishers in the US to my novel, Peeler, which I naively thought would appeal greatly to an Irish-American audience. Despite generally great reviews and decent sales here in Ireland (and elsewhere, thanks to international crime fic bloggers–cheers, lads and laddettes!), it has so far been seen by US pub’s to be ‘too difficult’ and ‘too obscure a period of history for American readers to identify with.’ Still, it was the book I wanted to write and I’d write it again knowing what I know now. The follow-up to Peeler, Irregulars, which will be published late this year or early next, is set in Dublin during the Civil War and thus, already, too difficult, parochial and obscure! But it had to be set in Dublin b/c the story I wanted to tell demands it. Much of this depends on the writer. I’m Irish-American myself, and yet have lived in Ireland for the past 17 years and thus would feel on shaky ground setting a novel in America at the moment. Authenticity is everything to me. If I can’t see, hear, smell the place; if I can’t listen to the people talk etc. I can’t write it. (And even if I can do all these things it’s still bloody hard!)
Mr. McCarthy, thanks for sharing your thoughts and welcome to the blog. I have your book, PEELER, in my stacks. I saw Adrian McKinty rave about it and I knew that if he loved it I would too. Authenticity is important to me too.
I bought PEELER precisely because of the setting and history and look forward to the second book. We’re out here, Mr. McCarthy, your audience is ready and eager and my estimation of publishers continues to sink day after day, one stupid news report at a time.
While I agree that a writer shouldn’t be limited to their immediate locale, though it never seems to be a problem for so called ‘literary’ writers, just those writing in a genre?
To refuse any story because it’s too parochial or too local simply results in a lowest-common-denominator production of writing that reduces the form to a series of well known and well worn steps and results in fiction that is so derivative that it becomes that which is used to put down the genre of crime fiction, that it is cliché, that it is formulaic, that it is just a production line for repetitive stories.
Unless publishers, and readers, attempt to get out of the box they’re in danger of putting themselves in crime fiction will dwindle. As soon as it becomes clear that what is being published is just the same small variety of stories being barely rehashed readers will move elsewhere
Much like movies and music the world of crime fiction needs regular re-invigorating or everyone suffers. What future is there for those of us that love the genre if all we are exposed to are the equivalent of boybands?
Thanks colmoshea for your thoughts and I couldn’t agree more.
I think part of the problem is that editors aren’t really making the buying decisions anymore. Increasingly its the accountants and money men within large publishing houses and corporations who won’t allow editors to purchase a book that isnt perceived as being commerical. I can understand why Kevin and myself can’t find a US publisher but when even a huge bestseller like Colin Bateman has trouble getting a press you know the US publishing industry is excessively conservative and moribund.
I do however blame Irish American readers to some extent. When they ignore more interesting stuff and buy the utter rubbish Oirishy books that are available (I wont name names) it becomes a bit of a vicious circle doesnt it? Unfortunately there seem to be few presses (none?) that can smash this circle.
Incidentally the link to my blog doesnt work because I accidentally deleted that post while I was adding a comment. Nope it wasn’t a conspiracy to silence me from Simon and Schuster it was sheer stupidity on my part.
Ah, thanks Adrian for sharing your thoughts on this. I always think readers are partly to blame for half the trash we are reading today. James Patterson anyone?
I write books set outside of Ireland but, then again, I haven’t lived there for some time – and as it’s a place that has changed out of all recognition in the last few years, I don’t feel too comfortable setting a novel there. Anyway, I’m not too worried about writing what you know, I like to write what I want to read. Weirdly I want to read 1930s Soviet detective novels.
As for whether they’re more marketable than Irish-based novels, I’m not so sure. It seems to be a hard sell in the US at the moment for any books outside of the big names. And that’s probably only going to get worse with the decline in newspaper reviews and bookstores and the huge numbers of indie authors who will publish in the next few years. Whether it’s going to get any better further down the line, I’m not so sure either. But when you look at Scandinavian crime at the moment, you would have to think that if Irish-set Crime novels had more of a brand it might make things easier. Adrian’s right to say that the US publishers are making decisions based on potential sales and perhaps it would give them more of reason to come to a positive decision. After all, if a book is set in a tiny Norwegian villaged these days it’s a sure thing, and the quality of Irish crime writing is at the very least equivalent. Fingers crossed.
That sounds good. Thanks for the feedback. I think writers should write what they want to read, too. I’m just not a fan of writers being discouraged from writing what they want to read if it happens to be set in Ireland or elsewhere for that matter. One of the reasons why I read is for the sense of place. I enjoy different settings and had my heart set on reading more crime fiction from Ireland. A friend of mine said I’m about 20 years too late for that.
I travel to Europe often, so I’ll just add these to my ‘buy while abroad’ list.