Recently we caught up with Barry Eisler, bestselling novelist of the John Rain series.
In this Q&A, Eisler explains why he became a novelist, the best and most difficult parts of his job, the importance of promotion, and the inspiration behind his latest Rain novel, Requiem for an Assassin.
WB: Why did you decide to become a novelist?
This one always reminds me of that joke about why dogs lick their genitals (oops, did I say that out loud)? Uh, I’ve always liked to write and have always been good at it. And I’ve always thought it would be great to make a living writing novels. I was living in Tokyo in 1993 when an idea for a story came to me; I started writing it, and eight years later, sold the rights to Rain Fall, my first novel.
WB: What were you doing previously?
I’ve had a variety of interesting jobs: a covert position with the CIA; attorney in an international law firm; in-house counsel at the Osaka headquarters of Matsushita Electric Industrial; executive with a technology start-up. I was with the startup when the rights to Rain Fall sold, and since then, I’m glad to say I’ve been writing full-time.
Best job I’ve ever had.
WB: What formal training did you have before becoming a novelist?
No formal training really, other than a couple creative writing courses in high school and college. In some ways practicing law was helpful, because contracts are stories about relationships that haven’t happened yet, and briefs are stories about ones that have (and have ended badly). A good lawyer has to think ruthlessly about who, what, where, when, why, and how and so does a good novelist.
WB: Do you adhere to a writing schedule? Shoot for a specific daily page or word count?
I wish I had a schedule! I just write when I can — promotion is a huge part of the business. As for a daily word count, it varies. There’s a ratio between thinking and writing. When I’m just getting started on a book, the ratio is skewed heavily toward thinking, but as the story progresses and I figure things out, I can write more and need to think less.
By the time I’ve reached the last ten percent of the book, I’ve discovered the whole story out and it’s pure writing — an electrifying feeling, like I’ve grabbed the back of a comet and am struggling just to hang on.
So at the start of things, a 500-word day feels great. In the middle, I feel comfortable with 1000 or so. 2000 always feels good. By the last third of the book, my average gets closer to 3000. The most I’ve ever written in a day, with my fingers a blur and my hair on fire, was 8200 — the last two of which, not coincidentally, were “The End.”
WB: How long does it typically take for you to complete the first draft of a novel?
I’d say about four or five months. One month to figure things out and play around with an outline; three or four months to write. And then just a couple weeks to revise in accordance with comments from my agent, editor, and various friends and family. I revise as I go, and my first draft is pretty clean.
WB: What inspired you to write your latest novel, Requiem For An Assassin?
In the first five Rain books, the protagonist, half-Japanese, half-American contract killer John Rain, is gradually extricating himself from the life. It’s not easy for him, but he’s opening up slowly, building relationships, emerging from the isolated existence he was leading in Rain Fall. Then I was talking to a friend of mine, the writer and self-defense expert Marc MacYoung, about how he got out of the life. The conversation made me start to wonder what would happen if a threat to someone Rain had come to care about forced him back into the life not so much what would happen on the outside, although that’s interesting, too, but what would be going on inside? To save his friend, Rain would have to invoke a part of himself he had hoped to banish. He’d try to use that deadly, resourceful part of himself without letting it consume him and that inner struggle became the heart of the story.
WB: What would you say is the “best” and “worst” aspects of this job?
The best is getting paid to write! My definition of success has always been: finding a way to get someone to pay you to do what you would pay to do.
In addition to the writing, I do a ton of research, too, involving travel all over Asia and Europe and once to Brazil, conversations with experts, combat shooting courses sometimes I pause and think, holy shit, they’re paying me to do this!
The worst? No matter what the profession — lawyer, accountant, salesperson, any kind of entrepreneur — working for yourself can be all-consuming. There’s always more you could be doing, and it’s hard to find the right balance between writing, promoting, and just living. That’s a quality problem to have, though, and not something I’d complain about.
WB: How do you market yourself and your books?
I guess the short answer would be, “tirelessly.” But seriously, I could write about this one at great length and in fact, I already have! For anyone who’s curious, check out the For Writers section of my website. It’s the sum of everything I’ve learned the hard way in five years of writing professionally, everything I wish I’d known when I started out.
WB: What would you like to do if you weren’t a novelist?
I could happily be a travel writer. I enjoy writing screenplays and love anything to do with marketing. Any job involving formulating foreign policy would be fine by me. In fact, I have an outlet for that last Walter Mitty urge my blog on politics and language, The Heart of the Matter, available on my website and on MySpace.
WB: How did you acquire an agent?
I had received about fifty rejections after sending the Rain Fall manuscript to as many agents, but some of them offered good suggestions, so I kept on revising.
Eventually, a friend of a friend who worked at a publishing house suggested that I send the manuscript to a few agents with whom she worked, one of whom was Nat Sobel, the gentleman who represents me now. Nat saw promise in the early manuscript but knew it wasn’t ready for prime time; he offered suggestions for improvement that were as extensive as they were excellent, and, about two years later, he judged the manuscript ready to go.
At that point the deals came in fast and furious — first Sony’s Village Books in Japan, then Penguin Putnam in the U.S., then eight foreign offers.
It would be a mistake, though, to surmise from my experience that it matters who you know in this business. That’s a common misapprehension, born of wishful thinking. What matters is writing a great story. The literary agents’ business model involves reading everything that comes in, so eventually I would have gotten to Nat, and his judgment would have been the same.
Having someone steer me to him speeded things up for me, but that’s all. Remember, who you know might get a door opened for you, or opened a little sooner than you might have opened it on your own. But what happens on the other side of that door is entirely up to you.
WB: What skills would you say one needs to possess in order to be a successful novelist?
You have to love reading and writing. You have to have talent. You have to be tenacious. You have to believe in yourself for a long time before anyone else does.
WB: What are your greatest challenges as a novelist?
Writing each book despite thousands of distractions!
WB: What are some misconceptions you believe aspiring novelists have?
First, as I mentioned earlier, that it’s who you know, not what you’ve written, that gets you published. Second, that once you’re published, all you’ll do is write. In a given year, I’d say 20% of my time is spent writing. The rest is promotion and running the business.
Of course, you can find whatever balance is most comfortable for you. At this stage in my career, I think that 80/20 skew maximizes my chances of achieving the kind of commercial success I want. There’s certainly nothing wrong with being less ambitious, and sacrificing some commercial success for more quality of life. It’s a personal decision. But absent rare exceptions, everyone who succeeds in this business works hard to promote. There’s only so much time in the day for books, time which is now used for 500 channels of satellite television and the Internet, so books are a declining market. Growing a business in a declining market is a hell of a challenge. Which leads, I suppose, to a third misconception, along the lines of, “Hey, Cormac McCarthy has done maybe three interviews in his life doesn’t that prove you can succeed without promotion?” Answer: It does if you’re Cormac McCarthy. Are you?
WB: Are there any books on writing that you recommend?
Quite a few. How-to books can be hugely useful and I wish I’d started reading them earlier in my career. For a complete list of my recommendations, again, the For Writers section of my website.
WB: What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Don’t watch television! Unless you’re practicing to write teleplays. For why, again, For Writers on my website.
WB: What can fans expect from you next?
After Requiem for an Assassin, it’ll be a standalone thriller. Not a Rain book, but it’ll have all the edge-of-your seat action, exotic locales, realistic tradecraft, and steamy sex that people seem to like in the Rain series.
WB: Do you have a favorite quote?
“If I have seen farther than others, it’s because my view wasn’t obscured by a television screen.” Actually, I made that one up, but it seemed appropriate here
To learn more about Barry Eisler and his work, visit his site at http://www.barryeisler.com/.
He can also be contacted at www.myspace.com/barryeisler.
Jennifer Minar-Jaynes is a Los Angeles-based writer and the editor-in-chief of www.WritersBreak.com.
For a complete list of Barry Eisler’s novels, CLICK HERE.
(Note: This interview was first published in 2006. Yes, an oldie. But definitely a goodie.)
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