Sisters in Crime: A 20-Year Significance for Readers & Writers

You love to read mysteries, especially by female authors like Susan Wittig Albert, Nevada Barr, Rita Mae Brown, Janet Evanovich and J.A. Jance. Maybe even Kris Neri. To name just a few.

So you go down to the Sedona Public Library to check out one of their books. Or you visit The Well Red Coyote to buy a paperback copy of your very own. Pretty easy. So easy that we take it for granted that these books, or ones like them, have always been available. But, unfortunately, this has not always been the case, and it wasn’t all that long ago.

Until relatively recently, American publishers in the mystery and crime fiction genre were only interested in the gentle writings of English ladies (e.g., Agatha Christie) or the hard-boiled works of American men (e.g., Ed McBain, Dashiell Hammett, John MacDonald, Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane). They had virtually no interest in books by American women.

Such manuscripts were commonly submitted to publishers using initials instead of first names (J.A. Jance instead of Judy Jance), in order to hide the author’s gender and thereby enhance her chances of being published. In addition, books by female authors went out of print sooner and garnered fewer reviews than those written by men.

All that began to change in 1986, when mystery author Sara Paretsky founded Sisters in Crime, an organization whose stated mission was “to combat discrimination against women in the mystery field…and promote the professional advancement of women who write mysteries.”

Today, Sisters in Crime is an international organization with over 3,000 members (including men) and over 50 local chapters, comprised of authors, writers, readers, fans, librarians, editors, booksellers and agents.

In addition to providing some of the very best resources for getting your book published and for promoting it once it’s in bookstores, Sisters in Crime also tracks and reports on the number of male- vs. female-authored books that are reviewed in over 60 newspapers, magazines and other publications.

All that, and the opportunity for members to network among themselves, as well as with publishers, editors and the publishing industry at large.

Sisters in Crime is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month. Congratulations, sisters, and thank you for helping give us readers more choice and more reading enjoyment through diversity and professionalism.

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to sit down now and read a mystery novel by my favorite author, a woman who is a past president of one of the Sisters in Crime chapters, and someone I happen to know very well!