The review was wonderful. And, after years of trying to get published, after two novels that essentially fizzled, after all the hope and wondering…seeing my book in that magazine meant so much.
Crime writer E. A. Aymar is a busy man. Alongside writing gut-wrenching thrillers he pens a monthly column in the Washington Independent Review of Books, is the Managing Editor of The Thrill Begins and serves on the national board of International Thriller Writer's (ITW) as the Vice President of Author Programs. He talks to us about knowing when your book is ready for publication, marketing your work through in-person events and building on small writing goals.
Please give us a brief overview of yourself and your work.
My name is Ed Aymar, and I write under the name E. A. Aymar (it’s not much of a disguise). My writing falls solidly in dark crime fiction, often with black humor. My most recent novel is The Unrepentant (Down and Out Books, 2019), and it’s the story of a young woman who escapes a group of criminals and realizes, to fully free herself, she needs to kill them all.
Wow, that sounds grim. It’s not that grim.
How did you begin writing?
I’ve wanted to write for as long as I remember, but I didn’t start writing seriously until 1997, the year I graduated from college. And I didn’t get published until 2013. It was a long, painful road, but worth it. That said, I would have also been happy to have an instant bestseller and take a very, very short road. That would have been cool too.
I also started writing at a time when I had just left college and was working at a miserable job through a temp agency. I was lucky to have found any job, but this one wasn’t terribly fulfilling, and I wasn’t happy. Writing made me happy and was necessary for me. I think that, even though it was unintentional, that emotional place writing occupied was important. It was something I wanted to do, but also something I needed to do. That first impression lasts.
How do you motivate yourself to write?
I don’t need motivation to write. I read a lot, and I read a lot of good writers, and that’s plenty of motivation. Music and television and movies also really factor in.
There’s a lot of creative work out there, and some of it’s really good. I want to have that spark in my own work, that sense of immediacy and newness and style.
One of the most important lessons I learned came during an interview with the novelist Anne Tyler. The interviewer asked her a similar question, and Tyler responded that she tries to write when she doesn’t want to, or when she’s not feeling well. Those are the important days for her writing. That resonated with me. If you write during the tough times, then it’s easier to write at any time.
I understand that it’s a luxury to have the ability to write every day. People have demanding jobs, families with particular needs, their own personal challenges.
But, aside from those circumstances, the idea that your writing should come before your laziness or reluctance is important. Not every writer needs to function that way to write well, but it’s a good lesson for most of us to take to heart. Write when you don’t want to.
Is there any particular incident that has happened along your writing journey that you’d like to share?
I’ve published three novels, but the first two weren’t well-read or widely reviewed. The Unrepentant is the first book I wrote that’s been widely read and enjoyed, and I’ve been fortunate that a number of fantastic sites decided to review it.
When I learned that Publishers Weekly was going to review it, I was scared. I’ve read PW for years and I know how biting or encouraging their reviews can be – there’s a reason it’s informally called “the bible of the publishing industry.”
I checked online every Saturday morning, googling my name and PW, cringing as the search results appeared. But my PW review never showed up. After a while, I thought they had changed their mind and decided not to cover it. After all, The Unrepentant came out through a small, but wonderful, publisher. And despite the amount of reviews PW gives each week, space is still tight.
And then one Saturday my sad little google search turned up a hit. I don’t remember reading the review, and I don’t remember running downstairs and telling my wife about it. Or sharing the review with my agent and editors and publicist. Or posting it on social media. But I did, in the rush of a happiness-blurred hour.
The review was wonderful. And, after years of trying to get published, after two novels that essentially fizzled, after all the hope and wondering…seeing my book in that magazine meant so much.
And it’s just one person, right? It’s just one reviewer’s opinion. I know that. But it still meant something. It still meant something to have someone completely unassociated with me like what I wrote. Writers shouldn’t need that kind of validation, but we do. It’s a nice thing to have that can never be taken away.
Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
Take your time. Don’t rush to get published. I’ve talked about that sense of validation, but it’s important to only put your best work out there. There are so many publishing options nowadays and that’s truly an awesome thing, but it can be very misleading. Your book should be something earned, like any art. I’ve said this before, but writing a book shouldn’t be your goal. The goal should be writing a good book. One of the only ways to learn the difference is – and this is frustrating – time.
What do you think is the biggest challenge for new authors?
I think one of the biggest challenges is disillusionment. A friend of mine, Rea Frey, wrote a great essay about how she felt after her debut novel came out, and that essay resonated with a lot of writers. There’s so much work that goes into a book, and getting that book agented and published, and the mix of excitement and angst of the publishing process…and then your book comes out, and it’s onto the next one. That’s hard for a lot of people to understand or accept.
I think the thing to do is keep your goals small, as backward as that sounds. Always remember your desperation, back when you wanted to get published and failed. Always remember how you told yourself that you just wanted a book that someone would read and be affected by. That’s the important stuff. You control so little of what can happen, but you can reach someone and change their life. Your world lives in someone else now. That’s an amazing, beautiful thing you’ve done. Everything else is nice but, with that, you’ve managed to touch forever.
What methods of book marketing do you find the most effective?
Well, I hope this interview works to sell some copies of The Unrepentant, so there’s that. But I think in-person events are great.
My day job is in marketing, and I do a lot of online advertising. Given that experience, I thought that would be a natural promotional fit when I first got published. It wasn’t. I work for a pretty well-known company, and it’s fairly easy to generate attention for an established product. When it came to promoting my work, I was unknown, trying to target an audience I wasn’t overly familiar with, and facing a crowded marketplace. My online ads were barely successful.
Conversely, I was surprised to find how successful in-person events were for me. Bookstore readings, fairs and festivals, university talks, conferences…all of those events were a pleasure to do, and I enjoy the opportunity to meet new readers or other writers. It’s odd because, given the Internet age, those types of events seemed somewhat archaic to me. But I couldn’t have been more wrong.
What struggles did you face in the writing/ publishing process?
I write crime fiction, and there’s a lovely supportive community in the crime fiction world made up of other writers. These are writers that I love to read and do my best to support. But you get to the point where all of the crime fiction writers are essentially reading each other, and not that many are breaking through and reaching readers. Learning how to navigate past that point, reaching the breakout point, is a challenge every writer faces.
How do you handle rejection as a writer?
You have to keep writing and, not only that, you have to keep writing something you love. I write a lot – in addition to novels, I write short stories, I’m a monthly columnist for the Washington Independent Review of Books, and I occasionally write columns for The Thrill Begins, a web site I manage on behalf of the International Thriller Writers. That variety keeps me fuelled, and flexes muscles I, otherwise, might not use. If something doesn’t quite work or doesn’t feel right, I can get recharged by writing something else that does. And that, in turn, pushes me forward.
I never thought, incidentally, I’d be a prolific writer, and I’m still not sure I am. But writing more and more soothes me and puts the bad stuff at bay.
What is the best writing advice you have received?
It’s a cliché but read as much as you can. It keeps you excited – especially when you read something good – and knowledgeable about your field. Every good writer is, first, a hopelessly devoted reader.
You can find out more about E. A. Aymar via his website and social media channels: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
