Making a killing from courtroom dramas

HE isn’t hotter than Harry Potter, but for a man who has 235 million books in print, John Grisham has become platinum standard for fans of legal thrillers.
The latest from this Arkansas-born storyteller has an initial print of 2.5 million copies. Movie rights for The Associate, which made its debut on Tuesday, have already been sold to Paramount Pictures, with actor Shia LaBeouf in the title role.“I used to be Number One but then came Harry Potter. I really miss being Number One,” he deadpanned during a Tuesday appearance at a crowd­­­ed Barnes & Noble in Man­hattan to promote The Associate, a story set in New York, which Grisham described as a city that he had always loved but never featured in his previous books.
He produces a novel almost every year, always having about two or three ideas in his mind for the next book, mostly from stealing ideas everywhere.
“We all steal, that’s what we do,” he joked.
But there isn’t much sex in his writings because, according to his wife (in a previous TV interview), “he doesn’t know much about it”.
“I don’t know why she answered that way. It wasn’t necessary at all,” he said, poker-faced again.
Once he wrote something which he felt was erotic and raunchy, but his wife, who reads quite a lot of other naughty stuff, just “howled with laughter” after reading it.
He runs by his story ideas to his wife all the time. “If I can’t pitch it to her in about three sentences, I’m in trouble.”
To start on a book, Grisham has an outline for each chapter as he wants to know how the story goes.
“The more time I spend on the outline, the easier it gets, but sometimes I get lazy. If I don’t know the ending, I won’t start on it.”
But he admitted to not spending much time on characterisation. “I just want people to pick up my book and spend all night reading it, skipping work.”
He taught himself on what works and what won’t. Reading bad books, he said, reminds him not to write likewise.
Grisham remembered his early days as a small-town Mississippi lawyer always hanging around the court as he did not have too many clients.
One day, he listened to the testimony of a 10-year-old rape victim. “It was an emotional train wreck for all us in the courtroom. She took us through every emotion that a person could have,” he recalled.
When the court took a recess, Grisham left. Then he remembered that he had left his briefcase there.
He returned and, walking past the defendant, a thought came to him. Had he been the girl’s father, “just give me a gun, I could easily do it”.
“How many of you can convict me of something you would want to do yourself?” he asked himself. “It was a father’s revenge, a retribution.”
With that, an author was born, and A Time To Kill was published in 1988. “I wasn’t thinking about money or a career,” he said, “I just wanted a story told.”
By then, he had been severely bitten by the writing bug and decided that he had enough of a secret hobby.
The 54-year-old author spends six months every year writing, typing on the same computer that produced the 18 books he had written so far.
He believes the “insatiable appetite” for courtroom dramas and scandals has been the key to his commercial success.
“We have always enjoyed books and TV shows about lawyers. It’s ingrained in our DNA,” he said.
What does he do in the other six months? “People ask me that all the time,” he said, “but I really don’t know.”
Grisham shows little love for his critics. “Most of them have a manuscript in their drawer which can’t get published.”
Life, he said, is easier if you ignore the critics. The great thing about writing, he said, “is that you don’t have to retire”.
“I can’t say when I will quit. I’m always looking for something to write, I’m always looking for something to steal and then turn it over to my hyper creative imagination.”
Movie versions of The Firm, The Client and The Pelican Brief (he likes simple titles) came out within a year of the books being published.
“I write them that way. My books read like a movie.”
With all his wealth now, Grisham spoke of building schools in Kenya, health projects in Brazil and non-profit work to fight social injustice in the United States, because his heart remains in the law.
“The way the laws are abused in this country, the way we implement the death penalty, is absurd. These hot button issues really get to me.”
He is on the board of directors of Innocence Project, whose mission is to help prisoners who could be proven innocent through DNA tests. “To date, 232 people in the US have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 17 who served time on death row.”
A Time To Kill will always be special to him because it was his first book. “And there was no deadline to finish it,” he said.
Another favourite is A Painted House, drawn from his childhood in rural Arkansas, and “there is a lot of family history there”.
“I have received more than I can dream of,” he said of his success. “This is the icing on the cake.”