Finance can be murder

Peter Spiegelman, whose second novel DEATH’S LITTLE HELPERS is just out, talks to the NYT’s Alison Leigh Cowan about making the switch from the world of finance to the world of fiction, and all the growing pains he had to endure:

Mr. Spiegelman said that he was not exactly sure when he conjured up John March, but that he thought it was during his drives from Ridgefield to the software company’s office in White Plains, N.Y. On those trips, he said, he even sketched out a first and last chapter of the first book. By 2001, he had cut all connection with the software company, and he spent the next year writing the middle chapters.

But figuring out how to get published took real detective work, as he put it, and he spent early 2002 looking for contacts who could tell him whether he had any business trying to make his living as a writer. “At that point, I did not even have the lingo and all the taxonomy down,” he said. “Is this a detective novel? Is this a thriller? Is it hard-boiled? Is it soft-boiled?”

His search brought him to Susan A. Schwartz, an editorial consultant formerly at Doubleday, who was intrigued enough to introduce him to the woman who would become his literary agent, Denise Marcil. Within a month, as he was packing his family into the Chrysler minivan for a vacation, he got a call that Sonny Mehta wanted to meet.

Understanding that this could be her husband’s big break, Ms. Wang remembers it as a “pinch me” moment. Mr. Spiegelman remembers it more like a “kick me” moment, because he did not recognize the name of the publishing legend who runs the Knopf Publishing Group of Random House Inc.

Ms. Marcil arranged the meeting, which took place the following week in Mr. Mehta’s Park Avenue apartment. There, publisher and prospective author sipped wine and discussed books “and authors we love,” Mr. Spiegelman said, adding that he agreed to do some rewriting and Mr. Mehta offered to edit the book personally.

“Black Maps” sold about 10,000 copies, Mr. Spiegelman said, not enough to make any best-seller lists. But Knopf has big plans for the new book, including an initial run of 20,000. Mr. Mehta said: “That’s a good healthy printing for a writer who is still establishing himself and finding an audience. He’s got his fans, and he’s building, and we’re confident he’s going to grow into somebody whom we’ll be publishing for quite a while.”

Spiegelman will be at Black Orchid tomorrow night at 6:30 to sign his books. And for those keeping score, DUBLIN NOIR is the anthology Speigelman was referring to.