For some time now, you have seen news of author Ed Teja’s publishing success in my “Thursday Treats” roundup of publishing news columns. Please welcome Mr. Teja to the blog today as he discusses his latest novel, Songs of Saigon, and category placement.
A suspense story
isn't (necessarily) a thriller by Ed
Teja
In writing my latest novel, SONGS OF SAIGON, I
wound up doing a strange thing, at least for a writer who wants to sell books
that wind up categorized as thrillers — I took out several action scenes.
Those scenes weren’t badly written; they provided excitement
and drama. But in terms of advancing the story, they failed the book. They had
to come out.
To be fair (to me, of
course), I had set out to write an espionage thriller. But as the characters
and situations evolved, I found myself drawn into the personal stakes facing
Cole Miller, my main character. A young Chinese-American OSS agent, after his
mentor is killed, he finds out he is working for a boss who hates both
espionage and half breeds. An odd situation for a spy, and given the cauldron
he has been dropped into, he either evolves or dies.
When my focused changed from the larger political landscape
to the story of this man, it meant the bulk of the action — the war, the
convoluted administration of the Vichy government running the colony for the
Japanese, the gun smuggling — all became the stage. The story does revolve
around a murder mystery, but while the murder and the political intrigue
provide tension and suspense, I saw that they weren’t the story. When the novel
asserted itself, my espionage thriller had morphed into a historical crime
suspense novel.
And it took me along for the ride.
Revisiting the action scenes and cutting some of them was
not an easy decision. The realization that they didn’t fit took a long time and
three drafts. In my defense, I am a discovery writer at the moment, and that is
one of the perils of declaring one’s freedom from outlines. But I came to see that
exciting action didn’t necessarily make the suspense story come alive. And
although the murder is rather central to things, solving the crime wasn’t
exactly the point either. Learning this made me confront. in a new way (for
me), some of the many distinctions between a suspense story and a thriller. One
of the biggest distinctions was pacing and tone. Atmosphere, if you will. A suspense
novel can be quieter; its conflicts are often as much internal as external. When
the stakes increase, taking action isn’t always the best solution.
But you knew that. I should have. As with so many epiphanies
I’ve had as a writer, no sooner did I sit back in my chair to stare at my
bookshelves and mutter: “aha,” than it settled down into a dull: “Duh, Captain
Obvious.”
That’s okay. Catching on, even belatedly, was incredibly
helpful, although it had me spending an inordinate amount of time contemplating
the lesson — thinking about the nature of suspense, what creates it, and how
the tension in a suspense novel can be different from the sword of Damocles that
hangs over a thriller novel.
That was productive, but it got me thinking about the damn
categories — those irritating labels the sales platforms use to “help” readers
find your (my) book. And here is where this goes off the rails.
My artist wife likes to point out that, fundamentally, such
issues are a word thing. But then all our writing headaches are word things and
seldom do I stumble into more word traps (with deadly punji sticks in the
bottom) than in the publishing industry’s godawful (to use the technical term) distinctions
(or lack thereof) between “suspense” and “thriller.”
Let’s start with suspense: As Lee Child so eloquently points
out, all stories have suspense in them, or you wouldn’t read them. Good one.
Yes, suspense keeps the story moving, and I can’t take issue with that at all.
In fact, he goes on to suggest inserting tension into the writing at the paragraph
and sentence level, which are other excellent thoughts.
The problem, to my mind, lies more in the use of the
omnivorous and ubiquitous term “thriller.” According to the wise heads at
Wikipedia, a thriller is a story that “generally keeps its audience on the
"edge of their seats" as the plot builds towards a climax.” Sort of
like suspense, you (and me, and Mr. Child) might say. The implication that
suspense stories are thrilling goes without saying. The problem is that our online
bookshelves lump them together.
I’d go so far as to argue that the publishing industry (I
include the platforms in this) conflates these two (quite different kinds of
stories) together to an incredible degree. For instance, while surrealism is
given its own BISAC code, mystery, thriller, and suspense stories share a
single category.
Of course, there are a few subcategories that let a clever reader
summon from the algorithm a list of cozy mysteries or even assassination
thrillers. Unfortunately, the suspense reader will have less luck doing that.
Searching on suspense leaves her confronting the task of digging through a less-than
homogenous pile of titles in an uber category called, unhelpfully, “thrillers
& suspense.”
A case in point: On its Amazon product page, Patricia
Highsmith’s THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY is listed as: Books > Mystery, Thriller
& Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime
In all fairness, it is a crime novel. But a thriller? I
can’t see Mr. Ripley even concerning himself with global stakes or impending
doom. He’s a bit self centered for that.
And the bestseller list this book would fit into (thriller
& suspense, subgenre, crime) includes numerous books that are also listed
as “domestic thrillers,” “psychological fiction,” and “amateur sleuths.” (I
should add that delving deep into those narrower subcategories can lead the
unwary into other treacherous and equally murky miasmas.)
A quick interaction with Amazon’s online chatbot lying in
wait in the sidebar of the bestseller page assures me that the most popular
suspense crime fiction books are Lee Child’s Jack Reacher stories. Stories his
publisher calls thrillers.
All this suggests that, like so much jargon, the term
“thriller” might be a tad overused, a bit too ubiquitous, while its unwanted stepchild
“suspense” is simply misunderstood.
Of course, this essay has wandered into the dark forest that
is marketing. None of this should have anything to do with the writing, and
yet, in this age, it does. Those two intermix annoyingly. This isn’t even
restricted to abuse of us, the modern suspense writers, or even just books. If
you look at the listings for several of Hitchcock’s most famous suspense
stories, such as Vertigo or Rear Window, you will learn that, in today’s
jargon, the “master of suspense” produced thrillers.
There isn’t much one can do about this situation. It’s just
a frustrating reality confronting a writer who fancies writing suspense fiction.
Her suspense novel will inevitably enter an arena face a cohort of fiction that
is action oriented and plot driven.
From the cheap seats, the situation seems unavoidable. Using
“common sense” or even “English” (as in relying on dictionary definitions
rather than influencer-coined catchwords) to pick your book’s categories will
lead you straight off the nearest cliff. No, success lies in going with the
flow. Thus, after a lot of painful research to select the terms to feed the
platforms, I’m not thrilled by my choices. Honestly, Amazon and its ilk
sometimes ignore your input and substitute their own judgment, so even that can
be futile. For better or worse, my book is categorized as:
·
Literature & Fiction › Historical Fiction › World War II
·
Literature & Fiction › Historical Fiction › Thrillers
·
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
› Thrillers & Suspense › Suspense
As I write this, the book is on preorder, leaving me waiting
to see if those word crumbs will lead the right readers to my book. I don’t
find that particular suspense all that thrilling.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link for Songs
of Saigon: https://amzn.to/3RlxyfA
Amazon Associate Purchase Link for the
Storefront Assassin series: https://amzn.to/4fcM6WR
Ed Teja ©2026
Ed Teja is a
full-time writer and part-time martial arts instructor. A member of The Short
Mystery Fiction Society, his recent publications include stories in Black Cat
Weekly, Punk Noir, Yellow Mama, Black Petals, Thrill Ride, Wyldeblood 13,
Anotherealm, Mystery Tribune, and several Crimeucopia anthologies. In addition
to writing suspense, he actually writes a thriller series: THE STOREFRONT
ASSASSIN STORIES. https://edtejaauthor.com/
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