Fame and Fortune: Sue Grafton -- Page 2
P is for passion when talking career

Bankrate: When did the reality of money first sink in?

Sue Grafton: I can remember when I first was out truly on my own. I'd been married a couple times and I was suddenly in charge of my children and my finances. I had sold a book to film ("The Lolly-Madonna War") and the film was made and I got $25,000, which I lived on for awhile, and I remember vowing to myself that when I got down to my last $5,000, I was going to have to go out and get a job, which I did. I worked as a secretary for Danny Thomas Productions making $125 a week and I was thrilled because, although I had been writing, in those days I was not making much money from the work itself. I have always been very willing to work and I don't get into issues of, am I too good for it? If I had to scrub toilets for a living, it wouldn't bother me a bit.

Bankrate: In fact, you had a string of blue-collar jobs.

Sue Grafton: Oh yeah. I cleaned houses for a while. I once got fired from a house-cleaning job in Santa Barbara. In fact, I was cleaning house for a woman who owned a bookstore, which seems like a strange irony at this point. She would leave me these notes saying, "Please wash the mushrooms." And I had to change her sheets everyday, which really made me livid because she didn't have contour sheets. I think she just felt I wasn't very good at it, which is probably true. I think being a good house cleaner is a very special talent, and apparently I didn't have it. I was forced to write books for a living, doggone it.

Bankrate: When did you first come into serious money with your writing?

Sue Grafton: I can remember probably around the fourth or fifth (alphabet) book, to me it seemed like pretty serious money. I can't tell you how much it was, but at a certain point the publisher felt they were paying me so little that they renegotiated my contract before it was up and gave me more money. I didn't even have to ask. It was very nice. But there was a sense, at that point, that they really were trying to be fair to me and keep me happy. And I wasn't unhappy. I had been working in Hollywood before I started writing mysteries and that always felt like serious money; one year, Steve and I made $280,000 and I thought that was pretty good stuff, on movies and television pilots. And when I started this series, an agent said to me, "You have to understand: You will never earn from mysteries the kind of money you're used to from Hollywood." So didn't I get the last laugh? Besides which, I do mysteries for love; that's my passion. And I do believe that if you do what you're passionate about, life will take care of you.

Bankrate: Were you worried about making ends meet when you left screenwriting?

Sue Grafton: I was. How I did that, I knew I had to get out of Hollywood because it was killing me. I kept my day job and started working on "A Is for Alibi," which took me five years to write because I was teaching myself how to write mysteries, teaching myself everything there was to know about police procedures and forensics. And for that book I got $10,000, which was not going to carry me far. When I got to "G Is for Gumshoe" (1990), I finally felt I could quit writing for Hollywood. I held on for a long time because the Writer's Guild medical insurance is just incredible, and I realized at a certain point that I was just an insurance slut. I thought, pay the damn $3,500 a year or whatever for medical insurance and get out of Dodge. So that's what I did.

Bankrate: What is your spending weakness, your guilty pleasure?

Sue Grafton: Probably books. I buy hardback books and I do a raid at the bookstore and pick up whatever interests me, and if it turns out to not be very good, I'll quit reading it and give it away. But I just treasure a beautiful hardback book, so I'll spend $200 to $300 at once, sight unseen. Some I like the covers, others I remember vaguely hearing about it.

Bankrate: You've been candid about your dislike of the movie business. Is that why you have refused to sell the alphabet series to Hollywood?

Sue Grafton: Exactly. I would have to be nuts. Kinsey saved my life. It would be a sorry pact indeed if I turned around and sold her back to the slavery types. I learned many years ago that you never want to give them anything you care about. The minute the money changes hands, they have the power, and I'm not going to do it. I will not be at the mercy of those people. I was at their beck and call for way too many years. And actually it's so much fun: They call me up and write me letters and shilly-shally around about the film and TV rights and I write back and say, "I would rather roll naked in broken glass or have a root canal than make a deal with you." Then I don't hear so much from them anymore.