Do you know who said: "I've always acted alone like the cowboy . . . the cowboy entering the village or city alone on his horse . . . He acts, that's all."
John
Wayne? Ronald Reagan? Alan Ladd?
Nope.
Henry Kissinger made this remark to the late Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci,
during a 1972 interview, although her style more closely resembled an interrogation,
which often prompted intriguing answers.
Nevertheless,
Kissinger's remark, in his own way, perpetuated the myth of the lone cowboy as
the reality of the west.
Much
of the perception of the American West was shaped by stories that presented a
mostly romanticized view, pitting cowboys against Indians, and lawmen against
outlaws. Even though most writers today offer more compelling and
realistic views of the Old West, it's difficult to breakdown the barriers of
perception.
Novelist
Jory Sherman, the Western Writers of America's 2013 recipient of the Owen
Wister Award for Lifetime Contributions to Western Literature, contends that
"As long as they label our books westerns"
publishers are "locking us into a sub-genre that does not appeal to wider
markets."
He
believes such stories should be called American novels, and
many labeled as mainstream.
"We
are the only country in the world that has a West. The western is our Native
American literature. We have an exclusive on the West and it’s the richest part
of American history. And, the books should not be confined to a certain locale
or time period."
Using
Jory Sherman's comments as a benchmark, several authors and author-publishers
were asked to respond to three questions:
- How
limiting is the Western classification
in attracting new readers to the genre?
- How much
merit is there to changing, or re-defining, the name of the genre and
would it make a difference in attracting new readers?
- Would
expanding the appeal of the Western involve more than changing the genre classification?
-0-
Rebecca J. Vickery, Author & Publisher, Western Trail Blazer
In the minds of most new readers, if you say Western they think only of
gunfights, Indian wars, or trail drives.
This in itself is pretty limiting as
to which new readers would be attracted.
And in
using the same style covers and the same style blurbs, how are new readers to
know that these Westerns are exciting, well told, and worth their time?
Parents,
many teachers, and politicians often discourage young people from reading Westerns because the stories
contain guns and violence, can be racist toward Native Americans and blacks,
are often a bit religious, and most contain some lessons on morality.
At Western Trail Blazer, we've had some
success in attracting new readers by adding sub-genres to the classification of
Western - Western Romance,
Paranormal Western, Contemporary Western, Historical Western, Western
Adventure, Traditional Western, etc.
But as a
publisher, when we upload books, the classification choices are limited and we
are often stuck with Western as
the only choice, which fits.
Changing
the name of the genre Western as
a whole might help, but readers might also feel misled, or that it was another
publishing marketing trick, and it could backfire. My recommendations to
expand the appeal of the Western to new readers are fairly simple:
· Be honest with
the readers about what they are getting by using sub-genre classifications and
tags when possible
· Make the covers
and blurbs stylish and as true to the story as possible
· Offer blogs,
discussions, and interviews which will be interesting and draw from outside
your normal followers
· Use social
networks to make "virtual" friends who often will become customers
· Cross-promote
with other Western authors,
publishers, and organizations for the good of the entire genre
· Don't be such a
"traditionalist" that you can't see the merit in the Western
sub-genres which are actually drawing in new readers.
Nik Morton, Author / Editor
One part of me abhors labels. It's as if authors have to be
pigeonholed. That's why some resort to pen names. Some publishers don't want
their crime authors to be seen to write westerns etc.
The
publishers and critics are to blame, I suspect: western literature isn't -
literature, that is, in their view.
Yet
labels do appeal to readers who want that type of book. If a reader lives by
the credo 'I don't read westerns', simply removing the label isn't going to win
him over, unless he's particularly dense, as the blurb alone will tell him what
the story is about.
Although
I write westerns, they're aimed at any reader, not only a western aficionado; a
very few of my readers who haven't read a western before have been pleasantly
surprised. So what am I saying? Would those readers have picked up my western
if it had been labelled differently? I don't think so - the blurb tells them
it's a western, and they don't read westerns...
It's not
the classification; it's the public perception of the genre that needs work.
There are plenty of readers out there who don't read crime, or sci-fi, or
mysteries, or romance. They have set ideas, set perspectives, and it's
difficult to shake them.
All we
writers can do is strive to produce a quality product that can stand up against
any other genre in storytelling, style, appeal and narrative flow. Word of
mouth can sometimes help. Occasionally, a book becomes a breakout novel -
it transcends its genre. If it happens to be a western, then maybe that will
help others too.
Cheryl Pierson, Author, & Publisher, Prairie Rose Publications
What an interesting perspective from one of the masters! I
never thought about it this way until Jory put it in these particular words.
American
Novels—what an all-encompassing term that does justice to our writing about OUR
COUNTRY!
When you
think about it, novels that take place in other parts of our country
aren't labeled as such.
What WOULD you call a story that takes place in the
1800's in Boston, New York or Philadelphia? A "patriotic" novel? An
"Eastern"? What about a novel that takes place in the 1800s in New
Orleans?
These are
all "American" novels, and so should the story of the western history
of our country be called, as well!
Johnny D. Boggs, Author
The perception can be limiting. For most people, and quite a
few publishers, Western brings
to mind Louis L'Amour, Matt Dillon and Randolph Scott. If you write those kinds
of stories, great. It depends on how you want to market yourself.
You can
say, 'I write Westerns,' or 'I write historical novels set in the American
West.' When I'm introduced as an historical novelist, the reaction can range
from 'Cool' to 'Boooring.' Yet when someone introduces me as a 'Western'
writer, the most common reaction I get is eyes-open-wildly-curious-WOW!
So there
is immediate name recognition there. Like Jory Sherman says, 'We are the only
country that has a West,' and people everywhere know what the West is."
An
attempt was made several years ago to use the word Americana. It went nowhere. They have tried Novels of the West, which did a little
better.
But you
have to be careful about changing a brand, a known commodity. If nobody knows
what the label means, you're doomed to obscurity and remainders.
Good or
bad, people know what Western generally
means. I think the best thing writers can do is write the best story they can,
be it contemporary, historical, frontier, literary, mystery, young adult,
romance, horror, crossover, whatever.
I was
just talking to a couple of editors and an agent—none who represent me —while
in New York recently about that very thing. Bottom line seemed to be you have
to write something that will appeal to mass audiences, particularly female, and
definitely not just the older male Western reader.
You have
to have great blurbs from powerful people on the cover. You have to have a
publisher that will release it in hardback and do some promotion for it. And
you have to have a tremendous amount of luck and timing. None of which comes
easy.
But there
is a tremendous amount of popularity and sales in Western nonfiction, which
seems to be intriguing publishers in Western fiction. Best-selling nonfiction
writer Jeff Guinn (Go Down Together, The
Last Gunfight, Manson) has signed a three-book deal with Putnam for Western
fiction. I'll be interested to see how those novels will be marketed. But if
they do well, the exposure should be good for all of us.
Robert Vaughn, Author
During an interview for this blog's StoryTeller's 7, novelist Robert Vaughn addressed
this same topic:
Jory Sherman once wrote a brilliant piece about the Western, and
how it is the true American art form, a morality play of good verses evil.
And,
and there is nothing I could say that could possibly add a thing to that.
I know this: The Western is Americana, but it is certainly not
limited to Americans.
I met fans of the genre when I was in Germany, I know
there are fans in Great Britain, and I have sold them in England, France,
Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Japan, so they are there too.
I think a lot of readers, who haven’t read Westerns, may not
understand the scope and richness of the stories.
Some may remember the “B” Western Saturday Matinees and equate
them with Western novels.
But anyone who has read Frederic Faust (who wrote as Max Brand,
and was killed in Italy during WWII) Owen Wister, Louis L’Amour, or Jory
Sherman, knows that a well-written Western can have the depth and richness
equal to any work of literature.
