speefifteen if [inaudible conversations] . . >> this is book tv lives coverage of the first annual mississippi book festival held in the state capital in jackson. there's 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. we'll

bring that to live as well. while we wait here's 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 it's going to be here, i don't know what shape it's going to be in, i think pretty good. people are never going to stop reading or buying books, e-books, or hardback books, so i think it's in pretty good shape. to have been through, and the last 15 years we have lost 3000 bookstores, that's 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, that's difficult, fewer outlets, fewer sales, numbers are down, at the same

time e-books are very popular which you do not have to print anything. it's 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 what's going to happen. the great thing about dea is every year you have brand-new authors, so what's the buzz, what's the hot book? it's fun to speculate, careers get started so it's 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. i'm not quite finished with that, should say that on television because it supposed to be done. it's almost done, it's an copyediting where it spent some time every year but i'm 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, i'm trying to catch

stephen king. he works too hard. >> is he a friend of yours how did you get to know them. >> yes, it's 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 i'd ever been to a national clip award and i said i'd been invited but i'm probably not going to be invited. he said while said will they did invite me either, it's not our crap i'm 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. he's a red sox fan, i'm 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 he's my buddy. host: you mentioned e-books and the popularity with the e-books, as a writer do you profit off of an e-book? guest: not as much as i should. i have a very nice deal with random house.

it's a better deal than what most writers have, most writers don't get enough from the world of e-books, i'm not complaining. but it's something that writers are continually looking at, having split the time with an e-book, 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 it's an ongoing battle that has not been decided yet. personally i can't 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 that's true we went have the market without amazon. they sell the vast majority of

e-books. we are seen e-books 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 that's 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 50-50 and e-books and hardback, so that's a big big market. it's 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 couldn't believe all the things happen. we watch the book march around the world, language by language, it's hard to believe that it's in 45 languages. when the book came out and the books have been coming out they been translated now everywhere and it's 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? it's one of the 13 official languages of india that spoken by 95 million people in india. they're translating now it's that language. so it is overwhelming to think of the books that are in language i've never heard of. , i've 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. e-books, 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 i've 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 it's in them, it's 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, there's too many of us. in the private sector they're 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 don't have access to lawyers, the cases are hopeless. there is a is a lot of dnieper lawyers in society but those jobs aren't 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, i'm not sure it is what it once was. one big change the last 25 years is the proliferation of television advertisement. to me it's very unseemly and a lot of it bears on the faults, it's 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: i'm 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. i'm 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 , that's my curiosity, that's what what i enjoy doing, that's what i understand.

when i take that i find something really good and i will use it in a novel, that's where the stories come from. i'm 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 don't know if i've ever even thought about that. i don't like hammers and courtrooms because i despise cameras and courtrooms because it cheapens the process, it gives a bias to so many people who shouldn't care. it allows the lawyers to act, and oftentimes or embellish, and create stars out of judges, i

just don't like hammers and courtrooms. at the same time, i think it's 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. i'm 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 didn't get that. what is your writing habit, where you're 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 i'm 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 it's 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. it's a dark room dark room without much light, no phone, fax, internet, the best time is from 7:30 am to 9:30 am. it's averse to ours where everything is ours were everything is shut out, i can get a lot of work done. that's 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 that's 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 i'm writing i will show her the first 100 pages. she goes through, she doesn't 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 can't 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 she's 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 can't stand these people and i said well, okay i'll show you. i sent it to my agent and he read it and said john, i can't stand these people, i'm 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, i'll show you so i sent it to my agent and he said john this will ruin your career. okay i'm 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 don't like something they can say it and i will listen to it. i say i'm 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 i'm 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, it's 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 we'll do a deal and you can go make the movie. if i don't like the screenplay, deals off, off, you've wasted six months but not much money, that's kind of what we do. at that level, i am really involved. i've seen some a bad screenplays that i know i better be careful with the story up front so once i approve the screenplay that's 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 don't tell i don't tell the director what he's doing, that's most boring thing in the world, hanging on a movie set, i just can't stand it. it's 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 there's 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 that's where i describe myself. host: how much nonfiction research goes into your book? besides just looking at court cases that we talked about earlier, you've written written about the environment, you've 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, that's not those are nonfiction libraries

that i will install one day the novel. i keep, i collect those books because i might need a monday so there's a fair amount ofexpl nonfiction, reading and research to go into every bookos even though the books or stories of fiction. you have got to be on solid ground legally, actually i don't care if you are writing fiction. you had better get the law right. you had better get the facts right if you are writing aboutel stuff that's truly fiction. >> host: owyour characters are fiction. >> guest: if you are settingr claims to be real you had better be realistic so a lot of yo research. >> host: you have written u a nonfiction based in oklahoma wrongfully tried. you have another nonfiction rattling around in her head? >> guest: i hope not.opeot then the semantic made two months of research. i had a full-time research assistant helping me.

there were sounds of thousands of pages of documents. assnt i could have written three novels. i love the story. i still love the story. i knew i had to write it and i also knew i was going to get or sued so when you write. nonfiction about wrongful convictions or things i want to write about, there is a risk.ri you were going to irritate some of the bad guys, the people who were in the story that you wrote about and were responsible for the wrongful conviction whoever they are, the cops come to prosecutors, the judges whoever the people are any story.victio you know they are going to hiret lawyerseo so it takes some of te fun out of it to know you are going to get sued and even though the lawsuits are frivolous. i have never gotten halfway to

first base with augh lawsuit bs still not pleasant to go through. so that's sort of a deterrent to doing nonfiction. listen i'm on the board of the innocence project here in new york. we have had 325 exonerations by dna. every one of those stories would make a great hook but the books should be written. every wrong conviction is a fantastic t story from the point of view of the suffering, the drama, the deceit, the fact that the rapist is still out there raping and someone else is serving his time. these are fantastic stories about a system that's broken. i would like to write all ofng s them but i can't do that you know obviously. so to answer your question i would love to be able to write

another work of nonfiction. i'm not sure i will do it. it would take too much time away from the novels, that kid books and the other books i enjoy writing. >> host: john grisham as always we appreciate you stopping by booktv.way >> guest: my pleasure, good seeing you again. >> host: bareback live on booktv for the first-ever mississippi book festival and jackson. the next panel beginning now is looking at the history of civil rights in america. >> welcome everyone to the inaugural mississippi book festival. my name is chris goodwin the mississippi department of archives and history. this is their civil rights history panel sponsored by the mississippi humanities council