THUMPING THE GOOD BOOK

by James Lincoln Warren

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According to Technorati, the website that tracks blogs, Criminal Brief is ranked 237,453rd among about 7.3 million blogs on the web. Not bad … except that when you consider that Sarah Weinman’s Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind, perhaps the premiere mystery blog on the net, rates at 11,003rd. That’s a differential of 226,550. Still not bad, considering the population of the U.S. is over 304 million and that CB has an international audience, albeit English speaking. But is it good enough?

Criminal Brief is subtitled “The Mystery Short Story Web Log Project” and was conceived to fulfill four purposes:

1. Advocacy. To serve as a forum for people who love short crime fiction and to encourage more people to read short crime fiction.

2. Publicity. To encourage people to seek out and read the published stories and essays written by the regular contributors — and by contributors, I don’t restrict the definition to the columnists, but extend it to our commentators as well. Nothing could please me more than to have somebody pick up stories written by Dick Stodghill, Jon Breen, or Neil Schofield because they encounter those names here. I should also observe that this particular motivation is unrelated to financial remuneration — short story markets pay by the word and do not pay royalties according the number of sales.

3. Soapbox. To give each of us a place where we can expound on our craft and other matters that inform us as authors.

4. Entertainment. Our job as writers is to engage our audience. I wanted CB to be fun.

The internet is loaded to the gunwales with advice to writers. We spend a lot of time looking under the hood here at CB, too. But I didn’t want Criminal Brief to be aimed primarily at folks who are seeking to be published. I am a natural pedagogue and I love teaching, but more important to me than teaching folks how to write is teaching them to understand and appreciate what they’re reading. Frequently that means imparting some faculty for interpretation and analysis. It’s sort of like watching a cooking show — you may not ever attempt the recipe, but seeing the means by which good food is prepared makes you appreciate it more when you stick it on your fork.

I had begun to believe that there were fewer people were reading short mysteries than there should be, and that the exigencies of modern life (primarily in terms of when folks find the time for leisure reading) and trends in publishing (primarily driven by business and economic factors) were more responsible for this than a sea change in the public taste. I believed that more people would consciously choose to read short mysteries if they were exposed more to short mysteries and the people who write them, that they might choose to entertain themselves with a good, tight yarn for a few minutes instead of wasting time on a Cosmo quiz or aimlessly surfing the net.

But I’ve always had the uncomfortable feeling that we are preaching to the choir.

As seen from the pulpit, this can be the result of several possible causes.

1. The Preacher is dull.

2. The Faith is no longer perceived as being relevant to the lives of the parishioners.

3. The play-offs are on TV at the same time.

4. There aren’t any activities sponsored by the church that effectively attract potential new believers.

I don’t think the Preacher is boring (not with the likes of Rob, Deborah, Steve, John, and Leigh sharing the pulpit). I think the Faith has as much to offer now as it ever did, maybe even more. Because CB is on the web and is available around the clock2, it doesn’t compete with the play-offs. That leaves Reason Four.

And there, I’m at a loss. A few weeks ago, I opened up CB to anybody who wants to send me an essay. So far I haven’t received a single submission. I’ve added audio content to the site. That gets a few hits now and again, but it did nothing to expand the audience. We’ve got an extensive blogroll, and I always return the favor when another blogger adds us to his or her own blogroll, provided I learn about it — but hits originating from other blogs has actually declined. We had a feature that enabled readers to submit reviews of their favorite stories, which I made as easy as possible to use, but it fizzled.

There’s only one thing left for a Preacher to do, and that’s ask the congregation what things we can do together to spread the Word. So I’m asking.

I don’t want anyone reading this to think that this is about ego. My ego could carry the Hindenburg and I don’t need more gas than I’ve already got. This is about sharing one of the best things in life with as many people as possible. Being able to share meaningful things with an audience is a privilege. Even a small audience.

If it seems like I’m discouraged, don’t fret. Despair, as they say, is a sin. When all is said and done, there are worse things than preaching to the choir, and as long as you the Gentle Reader are willing to join in singing the hymns, I promise you that CB will continue to give Witness.

1. St. Paul Preaching at Athens, 1515-16, by Raffaello Santi (1483-1520). [↩]
2. This is an archaic phrase meaning “24/7”. [↩]