Brilliant criminal writer Ace Atkins is the April 2010 Favorite Author at VJ Books.

Before turning to writing full time, Atkins worked as a crime reporter in the newsroom of The Tampa Tribune for several years. Here he earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination and Livingston Award nomination for his seven-part series about an unsolved murder of a Tampa socialite in 1956, “Tampa Confidential,” which had the whole city buzzing for weeks.

Over the past decade, Ace Atkins has been building up an immense following for his engaging fiction based on actual historical events. An amazingly thorough researcher, Atkins writes with authority using his extensive reading of historical records to create compelling fiction.

Ace Atkins is also the author of four… (more…)

A Commentary On Price Wars On Bestselling Books

We love books, we promote books, and yes, we sell books.  Our mission statement is to deliver to our customer an innovative approach to bookselling that recognizes the love of books that resides in all collectors.

Now this may seem like a trivial point, but we sell books because we love books . . . not the other way around.  From this vantage point we do not discriminate between blockbuster titles by bestselling authors and the new author delivering his or her first novel.  In fact we rely on the new author to fuel the excitement that brings our customer back to see what’s new.

This year we have brought you Abandon by Blake Crouch, Crush by Alan Jacobson, A Quiet Belief in Angels by R. J. Ellory, and The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny, just to mention a few.  These are all noteworthy books that would normally get lost in the big market stores who use their clout and buying power to push more James Patterson, John Grisham, Michael Crichton, and other mainstream titles at us in attempt to gain or secure market share.

Similarly, NY publisher editorial staffs select for publication those authors and titles that fit this limited view of “what will sell,” driving market trends rather that listening to what the reader really wants to read.  The result is a “dumbing down” of literature, and we end up with what I refer to as “airplane reads,” books that get read and thrown away.

For the record, we also rely on big selling books to provide us with the capital we need to offer a broader selection to our customers.  Sales of those big books allow us to comb through the hundreds of new titles each year and bring understated, infrequently advertised quality writing to your attention.  Michael Connelly was unknown when Little, Brown introduced us to Harry Bosch in The Black Echo, and John Grisham sold A Time To Kill from the trunk of his car to independent bookstores across the south.  We believe that tomorrow’s hottest authors are now residing in the new release flyers we send to you twice a week.

A lot of talk is spreading throughout the industry, outrage over the predatory pricing being used by Wal-mart, Amazon, and Target to gain a larger share of the market.  Unfair practices by these behemoths threaten the future of bookselling.  They can sell books either below their costs, or through backroom agreements with publishers, to bring customers to their stores to buy other products that they offer.  “Loss leaders” are not new, but this goes beyond such practices.  They are robbing the small independent bookstore of profits necessary to enable them to bring the full range of titles worthy our consideration to their shelves.

So we are asking you to refrain from buying these two or three books from the superstores.  Please buy these titles from your local independent bookseller.  Reward them with your business and they, like us, will guarantee you more to choose from in the years ahead.

All best wishes and good reading,

John

Fresh from his Guest of Honor tribute at Bouchercon 2009, Michael Connelly made a brief stop in Oregon during his tour for his latest blockbuster novel, Nine Dragons (Little, Brown).  John Hutchinson of VJ Books was able to meet with him briefly prior to Connelly’s public event.  Connelly signed UK copies of Nine Dragons (Orion), making it possible for VJ Books to offer signed copies of this novel in all (US, UK and Limited Edition) the popular formats.

“It has been three years since he has been out to see us, so it was great to be able to spend a few minutes with him,” said Hutchinson, himself a Connelly fan.

VJ Books offers the following review of Nine Dragons:

“Happy is the man who finds refuge in himself.”  So reads the saying on a Fortune Liquors’ matchbook cover that Harry Bosch has been carrying around for a dozen years, since the LA riots that cost his partner his life.  A murder in the same liquor store leads Michael Connelly’s seasoned homicide detective to a Chinese triad operating in Los Angeles.  When Bosch gets too close he learns that his 13 year old daughter, Maddie, has been kidnapped in Hong Kong. She is being held in Kowloon, the place called 9 Dragons, and Harry must find her before it is too late.   Bosch knows every part of LA., from Angels Flight to Echo Park.  He has explored every part of the city, and that knowledge has aided him at every turn.   For the first time a case, the most important case of his life, pulls him into a different city, a different culture, where he is handicapped by his LA-centric history.  He must rely on strangers in a strange land to save the life of his only child, and to put the world back in proper order.

Not since The Last Coyote has Connelly opened a window into the soul of Harry Bosch.  The once “bulletproof” investigator finds another force at work in shaping his life.  As a father Harry must view his options from a new vantage point, one that he is not ready to face.  Connelly makes a major shift in his writing transforming Harry Bosch into a more human character.  He does it flawlessly delivering his second amazing novel of the year.”

For additional information on Michael Connelly books and to order 9 Dragons visit:  http://www.vjbooks.com/Michael-Connelly-s/88.htm

Michael Connelly’s website at:  http://www.michaelconnelly.com/

See Michael’s video of 9 Dragons:

Here’s a look at Publisher’s Weekly fiction bestsellers as we reach the half-year.  It’s become increasingly hard of late for authors to hold onto the #1 spot, but this year seems tougher still.  Of the 18 authors who have nabbed that perch, only three – John Grisham, The Associate; Janet Evanovich, Plum Spooky; and Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care – have exceeded a week’s stay.  Such bestseller veterans as Michael Connelly, James Patterson, Harlan Coben, Mary Higgins Clark and others have managed only one week on top.  Of this year’s fiction newcomers, the five longest-running tenures to date are David Baldacci (First Family, nine weeks and counting); James Patterson (Run for Your Life, nine weeks); James Patterson (The 8th Confession, seven weeks); Maeve Binchy (Heart and Soul, seven weeks) and W.E.B. Griffin (Black Ops, seven weeks).

(Publisher’s Weekly, June 29)

“Being a former newspaper reporter, I’ve watched in recent years as the newspaper economy has crumbled…. Along the way, many people I worked with have lost their jobs to buyouts or layoffs. I am also a big fan of the TV show The Wire.  In its last season, the show explored… what was happening to the newspaper business.  Watching that show made me want to take  a shot at the story that would be a thriller first and a torch song for the newspaper business second.”

- Connelly’s reason for bringing back The Poet protagonist Jack McEvoy.  Scarecrow copies in print:  405,000. (Publisher’s Weekly, June

Order a signed copy of The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly at www.vjbooks.com