BETWEEN THE LINES

Book Talk by Joe


The Wonderful World of Backlists!

Everyone knows about bestseller lists (I'll devote a future column to them and how they are manipulated), but many readers are unfamiliar with backlists.

Simply put, backlists are all of the rest of the books, other than the current releases, that are still in print and available to buy and read. Undoubtedly, this includes a lot of books that are not very good, as well as some that should never have been published in the first place. But it also includes many of the best books ever published.

Bennett Cerf, the late and legendary head of Random House, once said, “The back list of Random House…is so good that I think if we closed up the whole business for the next twenty years or so, we might make more money than we're making now, because our backlist is like reaching down and picking up gold from the sidewalk. There's nothing like it!”

Some of the best books I've discovered were on the backlists of my favorite bestselling authors. Tony Hillerman is a good example. In case you've never heard of him (shame on you!), Hillerman writes mysteries set in the Four Corners area of the Southwest and featuring Navajo Tribal Policemen, Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee.

But did you know that in addition to a great many mystery novels, Hillerman also wrote a children's book (The Boy Who Made Dragonfly - A Zuni Myth); a non-fiction book of funny and interesting historical episodes (Great Taos Bank Robbery and Other Indian Country Affairs); and, an interview with himself (Talking Mysteries - A Conversation with Tony Hillerman). In addition, he is the editor of an anthology of short stories (The Mysterious West) featuring a who's who list of other mystery authors.

Cormac McCarthy is another bestselling author with a great backlist. His recently released No Country for Old Men has been on almost every bestseller list. But his previous work, especially All the Pretty Horses and Cities of the Plain are just as good, if not better.

Some of the best fiction writing I have ever read can be found in the very early works of two other favorites of mine - The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke and The Poet by Michael Connelly.

So if you haven't already done so, explore the backlists of your own favorite authors, both fiction and nonfiction. You might be surprised at what you find, and you definitely won't be disappointed.

Until next month, good reading - you owe it to yourself!