Serial Killers,  The life of a writer,  True Crime

One Writer’s Journey into True Crime

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One Writer's Journey into True CrimeThe stars aligned, angels sang, and the gates of heaven opened wide. That’s how it felt, anyway, when an amazing opportunity to write true crime came my way.

In May, someone tweeted to me, asking if I could follow them back so they could DM me. I saw that the woman was an acquisitions editor and not a cam girl, so I followed her back. Then apologized for my delay in responding, and explained that I’d been offline for a few days while completing final edits for RACKED. She asked if she could email me instead.

After giving her my email address, I still didn’t give the quick exchange much thought. But then my curiosity got the better of me and I engaged in a little online stalking research and discovered she’s an acquisitions editor for Globe Pequot, subsidiary of Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., one of the largest publishers of nonfiction and America’s leading book distributor.

Now, she had my full attention.

What could this offer be about? The next question was, why me? And then, like any good crime writer, I wondered, is this for real?

At some point in a crime writer’s career chances are you’ll be approached by a total whack-job with a decent story to tell, a pleasant person with a humdrum story or a fascinating story that would make an excellent blog post but doesn’t provide enough intrigue for a novel-length book, and then you’ll get the prisoner whose sole purpose for contacting you is because he wants to profit off his crimes.

I’ve received all of the above. Some projects I’ve gotten excited about, only to be let down by the criminal’s money-hungry lawyer. Other projects I simply haven’t squeezed in the time to pursue in more depth … but eventually I will. They’re cool stories that need to be told, and Murder Blog readers should enjoy them.

All this and more fled through my mind as I went about my usual business. Because of past experiences, it’s fair to say I was more leery than excited at this point. When the email dropped into my inbox I read it about ten times, searching for clues of how this offer might be a cruel prank or something even more nefarious, like some hacker’s idea of a good time, a hacker who went through the motions of creating a fake Twitter profile for the sole purpose of tricking some poor schmuck. Meaning, me. Scammers are everywhere, and they often target writers. If you’re thinking, wow, Sue’s skeptical and suspicious, you’re not wrong. Creative folks have big dreams tied to real emotions. If we don’t protect ourselves, who will?

The signature line read “Rowman & Littlefield Group, Inc.,” and the proverbial lightbulb went off. OMG, I know them! This publisher’s been in business since 1949, and is a highly regarded name in the publishing industry.

The acquisitions editor told me she ran across my blog post Female Serial Killers — Unmasked during her initial research for a book idea. She also checked out my books, other articles on my blog, and social media presence before contacting me. Professional acquisitions editors never reach out to writers on a whim. They do extensive research first.

One Writer's Journey into True CrimeMost acquisitions editors contact one of their in-house authors to write a book to spec, or reach out to an established big name within that genre. Can you see how contacting a crime writer who doesn’t write historical or nonfiction to write a historical true crime book is an unusual scenario? Although, to my credit, I have written historical true crime stories on this blog. Novelists have achieved huge success within the true crime genre, so perhaps, that was her motivation. I might never learn why this happened to me, because I wasn’t about to ask and risk changing her mind. Stupid, I am not.

When I say “spec” I mean the publisher picks the subject and parameters. For example, she asked if I’d be interested in writing a true crime book about female serial killers of New England who operated prior to 1950. Globe Pequot, a full partner of Rowman & Littlefield Group, Inc., focuses on regional history. They’ve enjoyed much success in narrowing their niche. To entice me to say yes, the email contained links to books that showcased their successes.

For example, Globe Pequot includes such authors as M. William Phelps, who, along with numerous publishing credits and accolades, including TV and movie adaptations, consulted on the first season of Dexter and hosted and produced Discovery ID’s Dark Minds.

Enough proof to quiet the suspicious voices in my head? You betcha.

The acquisitions editor and I arranged a meeting via phone to discuss the finer details of the concept. Quick tip for writers: if you ever receive an email like this, make sure you are prepared when you get the call. After the initial email, I dove head-first down a rabbit hole of research. Turns out, I had plenty of interesting female serial killers to choose from. To make the book even more intriguing I looked for female SKs who weren’t run-of-the-mill killers. My “ladies” went way beyond what’s necessary to end a human life.

That’s another takeaway for writers. Writing true crime includes wading through mountains of research, so you better choose your subjects wisely. If the writer isn’t passionate about the killer and his/her crimes, the reader won’t be either.

During the call she gave me two weeks to submit a book proposal for her to bring to the board for approval. Two weeks! I’d never put together a book proposal before (fiction requirements differ from nonfiction), so I had to learn fast. Real fast. One part of the proposal requires a complete outline of the story in the form of a Table of Contents, with an explanation of each chapter heading that shows an overview of the completed book. Which meant, I had lots of research ahead of me in order to know the female serial killers enough to tell their stories. There’s no such thing as pantsing in the nonfiction arena, so at least I had that going for me. I’m already in the habit of planning my stories in advance.

When the first wave of panic set in, I reached out to a few friends for advice … Garry Rodgers, retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police and forensic coroner who writes true crime about cases he worked; Jordan Dane, critically acclaimed novelist and one of my go-to buddies who has never steered me wrong; she’s also been published by Harper Collins so she’s walked this path before; true crime writer and cold case expert Kim McGath, and Larry Brooks, a writing coach, critically acclaimed novelist, and dear friend who, years ago, taught me the craft of writing and working as a professional novelist. All four agreed that this editor’s decision to contact me made perfect sense. To them, maybe. I still wasn’t convinced. 😉 Although, their confidence did help calm my nerves a bit.

One Writer's Journey into True CrimeIf you haven’t heard this cold, hard truth about writers, we are our own worst critic. No one can say anything that we haven’t said to ourselves a gazillion times. This trait helps us grow thick skin; it can also paralyze creativity if we dwell on the negativity. The perfect mindset lies somewhere between “I suck” and “I’m amazing.”

Long story short, I made my deadline — and the acquisitions editor loved my proposal! The board did, too. Two weeks later (which felt more like years), they offered me a contract. Yay!!! So, I’m veering into true crime. Pretty Evil New England: Female Serial Killers of the Region’s Past is anticipated to hit stores in Fall 2020.

The freaky part? I printed out my contract to read it over one last time before signing. The second I laid the contract on the table YouTube opened BY ITSELF (it wasn’t open when I left my desk!) and played ALL my book trailers, one after another as I read the contract from start to finish. Once I signed, the videos/music stopped.

If we’re Facebook friends, you probably saw me post this story. My mother, who died when I was a teenager, was in the room that day. There’s not a doubt in my mind. Thanks, Mom. xoxo

Sue Coletta is an award-winning crime writer and an active member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Feedspot and Expertido.org named her Murder Blog as “Best 100 Crime Blogs on the Net.” She also blogs on the Kill Zone (Writer's Digest "101 Best Websites for Writers"), Writers Helping Writers, and StoryEmpire. Sue lives with her husband in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. Her backlist includes psychological thrillers, the Mayhem Series (books 1-3) and Grafton County Series, and true crime/narrative nonfiction. Now, she exclusively writes eco-thrillers, Mayhem Series (books 4-9 and continuing). Sue's appeared on the Emmy award-winning true crime series, Storm of Suspicion, and three episodes of A Time to Kill on Investigation Discovery. When she's not writing, she loves spending time with her murder of crows, who live free but come when called by name. And nature feeds her soul.

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