Southern California Careers / Dream Jobs : Mystery Writing Can Be Lucrative--but Odds Are Chilling

“T he alarm went off at 7 , blaring in my ear like a brass band on the Fourth of July. I stumbled out of bed and threw on my sweats. Then, in the bluish glow of the computer screen, I killed Bradley Cogburn. “

Most of the time, that’s murder. For mystery writers, it’s a good day’s work.

Mystery authors plot heinous crimes. They punish the guilty and redeem the innocent. They don’t have to wear suits to work. Publishers pay huge sums for their books, which are gobbled up by thousands of adoring fans.

That’s the dream job. And according to mystery writers, it comes true. Some of it. Sometimes.

“In the sense that you get paid to sit there and make up stories and people pay money to buy these stories, it is a dream job,” said Nancy Baker Jacobs, a former Los Angeles resident who now lives in Pacific Grove and has written six mystery or suspense novels, including her most recent book, “Cradle and All.”

But Jacobs has a few chilling facts for anyone who thinks breaking into mystery writing is easy and immediately lucrative.

“I know people who are writing but never get published. Or they do this on the side and get a $4,000 or $5,000 advance every few years. Then there are people like me who are cranking them out, not in the sense that they’re not well done, but it’s a serious full-time job and it requires a lot of effort. In general, I don’t think people can bounce into this and quit their day jobs.”

Most don’t. Seventy percent of published mystery writers “do not support themselves solely on their writing,” said Kate Stine, editor of The Armchair Detective, a magazine that covers the mystery world. A survey by the National Writers Union found that the average advance for a mass-market paperback mystery was $13,900. The “prevalent range” went from a low of $5,000 to a high of $35,000.

One writer who made a successful full-time leap into mysteries is Jan Burke, who lives in the Long Beach area. Her first book, “Goodnight, Irene,” was nominated for the Agatha and Anthony awards, two highly regarded mystery prizes. Burke has since written two other “Irene” mysteries, signed a contract for three more and published six mystery stories. One of them, “Unharmed,” won first prize in the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers’ Awards--a first for a female writer. While she won’t disclose her advances or sales, she will say that mysteries pay the bills.

Burke’s path into mystery-writing was not a typical one.

When she finished the manuscript of “Goodnight, Irene,” Burke sent it to the only publishing contact she had: Her in-laws had friends whose daughter worked at Simon & Schuster’s advertising department. At least, Burke said, the woman was in the right building. She asked her to forward the manuscript to a reader in editorial.

That’s not what happened.

“I’m sure she opened it to make sure it wouldn’t humiliate her,” Burke said.

The woman read it, loved it, and personally pitched it to the publisher. He liked it, and so did the editor to whom he gave it. Burke had herself a three-book contract.

In February, 1993, shortly after “Goodnight, Irene” was published, Burke got an endorsement that not even a wildly creative writer could have dreamed up.

Burke was at the home of another Long Beach mystery writer, Wendy Hornsby, planning a publicity tour when her husband called. Turn on “48 Hours,” he said. Relatives who had seen the show in other time zones said President Clinton had held up Burke’s book.

“We said ‘Yeah, yeah, right,’ ” Burke said.

But with some more urging, Burke clicked on the television. During a White House tour, Clinton took CBS’s Dan Rather into the Oval Office and showed him what he was reading. First came two or three serious nonfiction tomes. And then he held up Burke’s book, saying he liked reading mysteries late at night.

“I just sat there, stunned,” Burke said. She said she doesn’t have hard numbers, but can’t help but think the incident boosted book sales.

Although success has meant that Burke could leave behind her job managing a plant that makes oil-well drilling equipment, it hasn’t been the vacation many people imagine a writing career to be.

“I worked a lot of hours as a manager,” she said. “I work more hours as a writer.”

Jaqueline Girdner of Mill Valley also can attest to that.

She began writing eight years ago, and has published six mysteries that spoof New Age trendiness in Marin County. But it’s only her most recent book, “A Stiff Critique,” that has gotten an advertising push from her publisher, Berkley. She continues to hold down a day job: keeping books for the computer business run by her husband, Greg.

Although it’s hard work, Girdner loves mystery writing. She said it has allowed her to convert life’s negative moments into fictional fodder.

“I don’t meet jerks anymore,” she said. “I meet material. That’s my motto: ‘Meet a jerk, go to work.’ ”

And she enjoys the author-and-fan conventions that take place every year. She couldn’t quite believe it as real when, at her first event, fans showered praise on her.

“I thought Greg had paid them,” she said. “It was so nice.”

There are other times, Burke said, when the gods impose humility on mystery writers.

Burke’s moment came one night at a Columbus, Ohio, bookstore. The staff and customers didn’t seem to know she was there for a book signing. Burke sat alone at a card table, thinking she could have stripped and belted out the national anthem without drawing a glance.

Then a young man stepped over, picked up her book and asked if she was the author.

“I copped to it, and he said, in just the most reverential tones, ‘You’re living my dream.’ I thought, ‘Surely not right now.’ ”

“But afterwards, it woke me up to all I had to be thankful for,” she said. “I am living my dream. I get to make up stories for a living.”

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Tips for Getting Published

Author Nancy Baker Jacobs has some advice for writers with a mystery manuscript they want to get published:

* Get an agent.

* Find out which agents handle mysteries and send a query letter describing your book.

* Enter writing contests.

Agents are listed in such books as “Literary Market Place” and Writer’s Digest’s “Guide to Literary Agents & Art / Photo Reps.”

Mystery writer Jaqueline Girdner said she found her first agent using this clever technique: She wrote to mystery editors at publishing houses, described her writing style and asked them to recommend agents. “A few did,” she said, “and then I wrote to them,” saying they had been recommended by a New York book editor.

Regarding writing contests, St. Martin’s Press sponsors two competitions each year, one for the best first private-eye novel; the other for the best first “traditional” mystery. The prize: You get published. (For details, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010.)

Information on other writing contests can be found in such books as “Writer’s Market” and “Literary Market Place,” and magazines, including the Writer and Poets & Writers. Poets & Writers also has an information center that can give writers tips on getting their work published, finding an agent, and sorting out real contests from phony ones that exist only to collect entry fees from writers. The information center is open 8 a.m. to noon Pacific time, (800) 666-2268 or (212) 226-3586.