Rob Kelley here, and I’m reflecting on who my readers are for my debut novel Raven and what they are telling me.
I was recently challenged by someone who knows book marketing to describe my ideal reader, and I realized that’s harder than it sounds. I have an acquaintance, a white collar professional to whom I mentioned that I’d just published my first novel, and when I described it, she said she couldn’t wait to read it. Awesome, of course, but I was surprised; I didn’t see her as someone who would like the book. So I clearly didn’t know exactly who my ideal reader was.
I also wasn’t sure what readers would like. I know what I like in novels, and definitely tried to emulate my favorite writers in the characterization, pacing, setting, and voice of the novel. I know my favorite scenes in the book, the ones I spent time crafting and polishing, especially the ending. I had two readers comment on the ending recently, one saying how much she enjoyed the ending, and another saying he was afraid it wasn’t going to turn out well for my protagonist, Mev Hayes. That was a useful thing to hear, because it meant that the level of tension I’d worked to create as my main character is in mortal danger, then in significant legal danger, was at the level I’d intended and the outcome wasn’t obvious.
A number of readers said they liked Mev (which was gratifying because one of the devastating critiques I got when I first tried to shop the book was that the main character was weak and underdeveloped. Yikes!). And, yes, readers came to despise my antagonist; also good. But it was reactions to my secondary characters that have surprised me. Mev’s co-conspirator, best friend (and maybe more), Jack, was one reader’s favorite, asking if the next book could be about him. (If I write a sequel, which isn’t currently planned, I’ll probably write it from his POV).
Even more surprising was one reader’s real appreciation for the secondary FBI character Carl. Carl was fun to write and his journey allowed me to explore issues of race, privilege, and power, parallel in many ways to the challenges Mev faces as a woman in the sciences in 1990. But what came back to me from that comment was that I’d made him a fully fleshed out character, someone who encouraged the reader to want more. (Carl does show up in a short story set after Raven, tentatively titled “Binary,” that I’ll put out as a Kindle Short sometime in the future.)
Writers, what do you hope your readers find compelling in your work, and readers, what are you looking for in crime novels and thrillers?
Currently reading The Doorman by Chris Pavone, 2025, and loving it.
Next in my TBR list: Super-Cannes, by J.G. Ballard, 2000. (I just learned about this novel. I’d have sworn I read everything Ballard had ever written!)
Next week at Maine Crime Writers there will be posts by Rob Kelley (Monday), John Clark (Tuesday), Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson (Thursday) and Maureen Milliken (Friday), with a writing tip from Allison Keeton on Wednesday.
As I’ve mentioned, I have two kids. They are great. My two favorite things. Funny and fun and very active. But kids require food and water and attention. They have sporting interests and other interests not related to sports. Which means my afternoon, evening, and weekend routines are not regular. But I’m still getting it done. I knocked out a scene sitting on the floor at my younger son’s basketball practice. I knocked out another scene at my older son’s batting practice at the Picklr in Westbrook where there is a secret batting practice in a creepy back room.
You can catch my latest story in the March/April Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. It’s called “Generous Strike Zone” and was written at my older son’s baseball practice. The editor of AHMM said it was “haunting.” You’ve been warned.
While there, I met a group of ex-pat writers (mostly Brits, Aussies, and Americans, there were 8 or 10 of us) and we would meet (as writer groups do) to discuss and/or read what we were working on. Not a bad thing to do in Florence, especially when a glass of Prosecco or Chianti and a plate of pasta were also part of the night. The group is still going and has grown to become a mainstay in the literary “firmament” of the city.
You could say I’ve been at this game a long time. My first publication credits were in teen magazines in the late 1960s. My first traditionally published book was released in 2014. Since that time, I’ve published two additional books. One traditionally, one independently. Can you understand why, when I sit down to write, my brain screams AMATEUR.
In a ‘just the facts, Ma’am’ synopsis, here’s the deal. I’m a SLOOOOOOW writer. Except I’m not. That full-time job I mentioned above was in the legal biz. Part of my role entailed writing pleadings, deeply researched documents intended to persuade a judge or mediator to see things from our client’s point of view, often written on a twenty-four-hour deadline. It was intense, and it had to be fast, detailed, and defensible. Twenty-page documents flowed effortlessly from my fingers in the space of four hours. If my attorney was driving, I often had the outline banged out before we returned from court.
My idea of writing a novel comprised of throwing my ideas into the air and watching where they landed. Then I’d write from one to the other until the story emerged. That’s a lot of work when you’re writing crime fiction. It’s like managing the reins for a ten-horse team. The writer needs to be in control, but flexible enough to avoid a crash and still arrive at the destination. Then comes the editing. A necessary step in every novel, but an essential one for a discovery writer to move from the first to the second draft.
The last book I wrote took two years to write and is currently undergoing edits at the request of a potential publisher. That’s a long time. While the book was on submission, characters from an existing series clamored for new words of their own. Another idea, another plot, another three years. Scary thought. Then my husband bought me a book by K. Stanley and L. Cooke titled Secrets to Outlining a Novel. In his defense, he was tired of hearing me complain. The book reinforced my work-life experience. Outlining matters, but it’s not about the minutiae at this stage. It’s about the main events. The what, not the how. The how comes in the creative process.
