Thank you gentlemen thank you so much for coming to this discussion would also like to thank our sponsors the Mississippi Arts Commission and please be reminded that the panelist will be signing autographs, their autographs outside in the author 10. If you need a copy of of the book you can go to the book tent. Thank you. This is book tv lives coverage of the first annual mississippi book festival held in the state capital in jackson. Theres an author panel discussing native daughter eudora wealthy who won the pulitzer in 1971 for her book the optimist daughter. The next author panel will begin in about half an hour. Well bring that to live as well. While we wait heres an interview conducted recently with mississippi native author john grisham. So john grisham what are you doing in new york city question mark. The mpa happens every year, signs and books this morning, hanging out last year we were here and had a lot of fun. Carl and i were on stage for about an hour and we could have gone for about three hours, it was a lot of fun, really funny. About four years ago i did a breakfast show, speech with john stuart which was terrifying. To be on stage with jon stewart. We did one in chicago many years ago and my first was in miami, 22 years ago. I love the energy and excitement of being around books and publishers. So when you see all this anything about the future of the publishing world. Well its going to be here, i dont know what shape its going to be in, i think pretty good. People are never going to stop reading or buying books, ebooks, or hardback books, so i think its in pretty good shape. To have been through, and the last 15 years we have lost 3000 bookstores, thats a lot of bookstores. I was in france two months ago doing a book festival and france has the same number bookstores as we do, and we have five times the population. So we have lost so many great bookstores, thats difficult, fewer outlets, fewer sales, numbers are down, at the same time ebooks are very popular which you do not have to print anything. Its been a a search for publishers in the last five years so good, bad, every year we get together and talk about the future and whats going to happen. The great thing about dea is every year you have brandnew authors, so whats the buzz, whats the hot book . Its fun to speculate, careers get started so its exciting. Two you have a book out right now question marks. I have a book that came out two weeks ago and i signed this morning an excerpt from my next novel called rogue lawyer which comes out in october. Im not quite finished with that, should say that on television because it supposed to be done. Its almost done, its an copyediting where it spent some time every year but im almost done with it and it will come out in october. So that is my latest effort on fiction and i enjoyed writing it. You have one fiction how many total question mark. One nonfiction, five kids books, one collection of stories, two books about football, one book about baseball, one comic novel about christmas, skipping christmas. A childhood memoir of a painted house, and probably about 20 legal thrillers, i guess. The total number is around 3435, im trying to catch stephen king. He works too hard. Is he a friend of yours how did you get to know them. Yes, its really a funny story, 1991 the firm came out and i got a net one day from my publisher that said stephen king wanted to say hello. So stephen king calls me and asked me if id ever been to a national clip award and i said id been invited but im probably not going to be invited. He said while said will they did invite me either, its not our crap im going to buy a table this year for 10,000, the National Book awards and i want to invite a bunch of commercial authors, a bunch of popular authors to come sit with me and speak up the place. Are you in . I said how can you resist that. So we went to the National Book award, not really our crowd, we had a great time and we got to be buddies. After that he came to mississippi for a book festival and then he went to charleston virginia, we had an event and fundraiser one night and he is very generous. Hes a red sox fan, im not, i mcardle fan, we both hate the yankees so we have some Common Ground somewhere. A lot of booktalk, lotta baseball talk, gossipy talk about other writers, yes other writers, yes hes my buddy. Host you mentioned ebooks and the popularity with the ebooks, as a writer do you profit off of an ebook . Guest not as much as i should. I have a very nice deal with random house. Its a better deal than what most writers have, most writers dont get enough from the world of ebooks, im not complaining. But its something that writers are continually looking at, having split the time with an ebook, was it fair breakdown what should amazon get question mark which of the publisher get, what should the writer get . Amazon wants more, the writers want more, so its an ongoing battle that has not been decided yet. Personally i cant complain, most writers are not getting enough. Amazon can make a strong argument that it should get more because it created the market and i think thats true we went have the market without amazon. They sell the vast majority of ebooks. We are seen ebooks kinda sorta level off because many people still want the real book, they want the real hardback, paperback so right now with great amount came out in october, my last book, 30 of all books are sold near christmas time thats why went to a march 12 a october publication each year to get the christmas market. For the first three months, we were running about 5050 and ebooks and hardback, so thats a big big market. Its a big market that you have to Pay Attention to. The issue of who gets how much is up in the air but we are still negotiating. Host is it popular for you and is it fun to see your books written in french question mark. Guest i have to tell you when the firm, we sold the firm to double day in 1990 and we sold a film right, book rights, i was in shock. In shock. I couldnt believe all the things happen. We watch the book march around the world, language by language, its hard to believe that its in 45 languages. When the book came out and the books have been coming out they been translated now everywhere and its still hard to believe that you can write one book one time in your language and it goes around the world in other languages and find the market. The can do very well in the u. K. Obviously, great publisher is hotter in the u. K. But every German Market are voracious readers and they have it huge preoccupation about american culture, music books, tv, sports. For me the italians in french are next, those are big markets. The dutch for a small country are huge readers, they can read in english and dutch. So the foreign markets are fascinating, we fallen off a bit in asia, the japanese market is strong considerably and the spanish market when times are tough but is still fascinating to see a copy. Every copy of the book and every language so i get these big boxes of books that come in a few times years from greece, turkey, korea, you name it. You name it. You name it i can name all the languages. I have a contract last year, our letter with a contract from my latest language, number 4445, and i said what is it . Its one of the 13 official languages of india that spoken by 95 Million People in india. Theyre translating now its that language. So it is overwhelming to think of the books that are in language ive never heard of. , ive been lucky. Spee1 due work on your own contract since your work question mark. Guest no. Contracts are pretty much pushbutton, after 25 years of contracts not much changes. Ebooks, we had to find in the language there, when you look at contracts they contain copyright, legal information, i have really, really good lawyers, being a lawyer i appreciate what they do but ive been with the same lawyer now for 20 years. He is one of the leading literary lawyers in new york, i trust the guy with everything. My agent i have been with for 20 years, he he reviews the contracts so by the time i get the big stack of contracts i know its in them, its Pretty Simple process be met. Host how is the law profession changed in the 25 years you have been writing about it. Guest how is it changed . My first day of law school in august of 1979, 36 years ago. We were told the profession was overcrowded, we are not needed, we would be lucky to find jobs when we got out and there was too many of us. That was the first day of law school. There are still too many lawyers, the profession is overcrowded and too large and not needed, theres too many of us. In the private sector theyre far more lawyers in the public sector, nonprofits, Public Interest lawyers, we need lawyers were willing to work for nonprofits, work for inmates who are wrongfully convicted there are thousands of people in prison who dont have access to lawyers, the cases are hopeless. There is a is a lot of dnieper lawyers in society but those jobs arent of a lot of interest usually. The big firm, the model a big law, to go work with an associate in big firms and put in 100 hour weeks for seven or eight years, you make partner, that novel is still there, im not sure it is what it once was. One big change the last 25 years is the proliferation of television advertisement. To me its very unseemly and a lot of it bears on the faults, its changed a lot in the last 25 years. Some things have changed, some things have not changed in the professor. Host are those changes reflected in your book . Guest im always watching the profession and of changes, always watching trends in Litigation Trends and Law Firm Structure trends, applications for law school which are way down by the way. Im always watching trials, not up close but in the media, or issues, the spring court that came here. So i keep up with the supreme court, some of the cases we hear , thats my curiosity, thats what what i enjoy doing, thats what i understand. When i take that i find something really good and i will use it in a novel, thats where the stories come from. Im always on the prowl for something that i can take and steal and create a novel out of. Host do you think the spring court should be televised . Guest i dont know if ive ever even thought about that. I dont like hammers and courtrooms because i despise cameras and courtrooms because it cheapens the process, it gives a bias to so many people who shouldnt care. It allows the lawyers to act, and oftentimes or embellish, and create stars out of judges, i just dont like hammers and courtrooms. At the same time, i think its cool to watch this up record where things are very formal, where where lawyers are going to behave or get kicked out, and watch the justices interact for all of us to see. Im intrigued by that. I would like to see a trial, once or kate twice of a big case and televise it. I think the television would be glued to it initially. Maybe not every case but maybe a big case. Let the supremes pick the case, when she like to watch that . Your audience would go to nuts over that. Host i was hoping for that endorsement but we didnt get that. What is your writing habit, where youre right, how do you write . Do you do your own research . Guest the structure is pretty disciplined when i am writing. I started new new book each year in january the first. The goal is to finish by july the first. Host how do you pick the topic question mark. Guest the topics are always rattling around, i just finished the book for this year a little early so im thinking about next year. I have two or three ideas, i have notes, files, stories about issues, or what ever. I will weave them out through the fall and by january the first i have a good outline and its time to go. I write in the mornings from about 7 30 a. M. To 11 or sometimes 12. I usually write for four hours nonstop your brain is pretty well mush, mine is. I write in the same place, same desk, same cup a strong coffee, same quill. Its a dark room dark room without much light, no phone, fax, internet, the best time is from 7 30 am to 9 30 am. Its averse to ours where everything is ours were everything is shut out, i can get a lot of work done. Thats the structure, five days a week. To finish the book the goal is four to 500 pages, 100,000 words, and turn it in july the first. Editing takes another month, about late august i am pretty well shut down for a while and after labor day i will get bored and i will start writing a kids book or a baseball book, or football book. So thats the process. Host does your wife have a role question mark. Guest she has a big role in different ways, i bounce ideas off of her. Will be watching a news show about a trial or issue and i will say what you think about this . Twisted a little bit, would that be compelling, would that be a fun book, maybe maybe not. Sometimes she says yes, sometimes she says no. When im writing i will show her the first 100 pages. She goes through, she doesnt really edit, but she has a good eye and year for what is working and what is not working. She will say this female characters really weak, or i cant stand this character, or whatever, this subplot is not needed, or that subplot is ridiculous. She can say those things and so we go through the process and shes the first reader, she reads the book and i have to get by hear her or its not going to work. Their benefit couple of times in 25 years when i was writing a book one time, the story was great, she read a hundred pages and said she cant stand these people and i said well, okay ill show you. I sent it to my agent and he read it and said john, i cant stand these people, im not going to fight both of them okay. I wrote an experimental novel one time and she said if you publish this it will ruin your career, your career will be over. And i said okay, said okay, ill show you so i sent it to my agent and he said john this will ruin your career. Okay im not going to publish that book. So i listen to her. Between the three ofrzo us, me, renee, and my agent we have been together for 25 years and they can say anything, anything goes. If they dont like something they can say it and i will listen to it. I say im lucky to have people like that. Spee1 recently the firm was replayed on one of the movie channels, cable channel, how much control do you have when a movie is being made of your book. Guest well zero, none whatsoever. Spee2. Guest were you happy with the result question mark. Guest. Guest was a fun movie to watch and im glad we did it we should probably do the movie 20 some years ago. Because of tom cruise and jean it was the biggest movie of all time, the firm is still the biggest out of all the films. As far as the mastic Box Office Gross and foreign gross, the firm is still the biggest. The excitement of having it made in such a big way, far overshadowed any reservation i had about the story. The story did go to film, overall i been pretty lucky with the hollywood, very lucky and all the movies and they been fun to watch. So i do not get involved, its very hard to make a movie nowadays. My typical deal now is, if we have someone who really wants to make the movie, they will show us how enthusiastic they are over time, they will convince us of their sincerity and their talent and then at some point will say okay, go read the screenplay. I take it off the market, you have six months to write a screenplay, i trust you enough to write the screenplay, you have to pay to have it done. Bring us the screenplay, if i like it, at that point well do a deal and you can go make the movie. If i dont like the screenplay, deals off, off, youve wasted six months but not much money, thats kind of what we do. At that level, i am really involved. Ive seen some a bad screenplays that i know i better be careful with the story up front so once i approve the screenplay thats basically the story and i feel good about at that point. So i do get involved, i do not hang out on the set, i dont tell i dont tell the director what hes doing, thats most boring thing in the world, hanging on a movie set, i just cant stand it. Its nice to meet the actors and meet and all that kind of stuff and then go home. Host dear politics come through in your book . Guest yes. At a certain level. I am very much aware of the fact that i have a big pit that cannot be abused. A lot of my readers do not share my politics. I do not like to read another persons book if it theres a bunch of politics i disagree with. This is entertainment, this is pop fiction, i want to write for as broad of an audience as possible. Having said that, you cannot read my books and not realize that i am opposed to the death panel, opposed to so many things that are wrong with our criminal justice system, opposed to many environmental disaster, or whatever. A lot of things that i am a poster in favor of so you would have to read my book and say this guy is a fairly moderate democrat and thats where i describe myself. Host how much Nonfiction Research goes into your book . Besides just looking at court cases that we talked about earlier, youve written written about the environment, youve written about the death penalty. Guest a fair amount, gray mount, i read several read several books on coal mining, all nonfiction obviously. Almost all were very readable, very good books. I have a dozen books on criminal justice reform, thats not too exciting, prison overpopulation, the juvenile justice system, those are nonfiction but i will explore one day in a novel. I keep a lot of those books, collect those books cap because i might need them one day. There is a fair amount of nonfiction reading and research that goes into every book even though the books are fiction. You have to be on solid ground legally, factually, i dont care if you are writing fiction, you better get the lower right, you better get the facts right if youre writing about stuff thats even purely fiction your characters are fiction but if your setting claims to be real you better be realistic. So a lot of research. Host youve written out fiction based in oklahoma, criminal justice, wrongfully tried to have another nonfiction rattling around in your head as you say . Guest i hope not too much work. It took me two months of research and i have a fulltime Research Assistant helping me, there their tens of thousands of pages of documents, i could have written three novels. I love the story, still of the story, i knew i had to write it. I also knew i was going to get sued, when you write nonfiction about wrongful convictions or things i want to write about there is a risk, youre going to irritate the bad guys, the people in the story that you wrote about and were responsible for the wrongful conviction, whoever they are, the cops, prosecutors, the judges, who over the is, whoever the people are you need a story. They are going to be a target, theyre going to hire lawyers, so take some of the fun out of it to know that youre going to get sued. Even though ive been sued several times, ive never got halfway to for space with a lawsuit but theyre still not pleasant to go through. So that sort of a deterrent to do nonfiction. Im on the board of a project here new york