There’s a debate about the format for the next paperback editions of Elmore’s work.  Should they continue in trade (Be Cool, Killshot, Freaky Deaky are currently in trade) or should they be in mass market editions like the set that began in 2002 and is mostly in print today.  In other words should Elmore’s work be sold in paperback racks and shelves at drug stores and supermarkets or should they be in the larger trade editions appealing to a more literary audience at the bookstore?  Is Elmore a literary writer?

Elmore Leonard is definitely a literary writer. Oddly, that’s only even a question in the USA. But as to which format the backlist should be in, I’m not so sure. A lot of people - me, for example - first discovered Elmore Leonard in mass market paperbacks. But then, there are a lot of “literary” readers who would really appreciate the books if they read them. Maybe trade paperbacks are the way for them.

Actually, I’d like it if some of those older books would be reissued in hardcover. I’ve seen hardcover copies of Unknown Man #89 and Swag selling for over five hundred bucks each. I realize the collector’s market only wants first editions, but there might be enough people interested now who never had a chance to buy the hardcovers when they first came out.

Actually, I’d like it if some of those older books would be reissued in hardcover

Over the years, an occasional EL hardcover may have been reissued by another house, like Mysterious Press, for example.  However, once a book goes through its selling season, unless it is reprinted in umpteen editions like Dan Brown or somebody like that, it’s will never see a cloth cover again.  The publisher is trying to recoop the writer’s advance and the only way to do that is in paper.  We are hoping for a nice collectible trade set, but I do have an idea for an omnibus of the great Detroit novels (52 Pickup - Swag - Unknown Man #890 in hardcover,  along the lines of Dutch Treat and Double Dutch Treat which i’d like to interest HC in.

I’d like to see those Detroit novels in a single collection. For me, I’d like them as seperate books in a box set, instead of one big book.

I’m not a fan of the omnibus edition idea, agree that a boxed set is a better thought.  I am currently carting around the La Brava - Cat Chaser - Split Images book and would much prefer individual books.  Any idea why the 3 are in reverse chronological order?

Ah-ha! Another thread in which McFetridge names EL as a “literary” author. He even seems to be implying that outside the U.S.A. this goes without question (it doesn’t - & there aren’t any special “literary” editions of the books outside the U.S.A either).

So come on, McFetridge, fess up. Why can’t EL be just a populist author of successful thrillers?  By what process of thought do you identify him as a “literary” writer? What do you mean by “literary,” anyway? Pray tell…

You know exactly what I mean. Books about theme instead of plot-driven. I said it already.

But you’re right, that kind of labelling doesn’t mean anything. It just makes it a pain to find them in bookstores. Sometimes they’re in crime fiction, sometimes literature…

“You know exactly what I mean”!!!!  Is this your reasoning? Is this the way you usually debate things? Wow!

As a matter of fact I don’t know exactly what you mean at all. I wouldn’t ask, otherwise. (Take a look at the ‘plot’ thread.)

I’ve never been in a bookstore in the U.S or in Europe that carried an EL item & didn’t have it in the Crime shelves.

So what actually determines where a store or library places a book? 

Looking at the Dell mass market paperbacks I have of EL’s books, most say “Fiction” on the spine but a couple (The Big Bounce and Mr. Majestyk) say “Mystery”.  The one Avon (Unknown Man #89) says “Novel” and the two Penguins are split, Bandits is “Fiction” and Touch is “Crime/Mystery”.  Of the trade paperbacks I have the Deltas say “Fiction” while the Quills offer no opinion and the one Penguin is “Crime/Mystery”.  Everything from Pagan Babies forward I have in hardback and those don’t appear to follow this categorization scheme.

I was in the library the other day looking for another author’s books (Jon Talton, who is a columnist for the Arizona Republic and lives in my neighborhood) in the “Mystery” section and happened upon the Elmore Leonard section which was fairly sparsely populated.  On a hunch I walked over to Fiction and found a much larger offering.  Is there any logic to how this is done?

John McFetridge has has sent me a private communication by e-mail. It seems he is going to cease & desist from calling Elmore a literary author. A politician would call this ‘a victory for common-sense.’ I remain uneasy. Firstly because no other members of the forum took the subject seriously; and secondly because there is no doubt in my mind that in 50 years EL will be picked apart in seats of learning. You’ll be able to do a master’s in Elmore Leonard Studies at U of M, complete with guided tour of what was Cass Corridor. Thank God I’ll be dead. They already study Dashiell Hammett, though, but nothing would ever make me believe that Hammett was a “literary” author…

Gregg Sutter - 08 February 2007 08:10 PM

There’s a debate about the format for the next paperback editions of Elmore’s work.  Should they continue in trade (Be Cool, Killshot, Freaky Deaky are currently in trade) or should they be in mass market editions like the set that began in 2002 and is mostly in print today.  In other words should Elmore’s work be sold in paperback racks and shelves at drug stores and supermarkets or should they be in the larger trade editions appealing to a more literary audience at the bookstore?  Is Elmore a literary writer?

This is really tricky because book distribution in the U.S. is really controlled by three or four companies and getting past these gatekeepers, especially when they have preconceptions about an author is really tough. If money’s not the object, trade is great because it gives a classier setting for EL and you can sell it in airports and box stores. The mass market used to have a pulp vibe and that would be cool for EL, too. But I don’t think that’s still the case in the industry especially supermarkets and drug stores (to get into these two markets it has to be either a romance novel or a Patterson-style serial killer story —jeez ... it’s depressing just thinking about it.)