First effort ‘Court’ shows promise

OFFICERS OF THE COURT, by Donald V. Organ, 1st Books Library, 329 pages, $4.95 electronic, $12.95 paperback, $17.95 hardback.

A vanity press was where writers used to go when the rejection slips piled up and the manuscripts started gathering dust. Looked on as houses of ill repute by so-called legitimate publishing houses, authors who entered committed the sin of paying to have their books printed.

The desktop computer and the World Wide Web have made self-publishing acceptable. Stephen King’s experiment with online publication last year made it respectable. Writers who never could be published, and some who never should, can submit manuscripts to a number of online companies, including 1st Books Library.

Donald V. Organ, who summers in Northport, chose this company to publish his novel “Officers of the Court.” A Kansas native, he spent 40 years as a trial lawyer in New Orleans. Now retired, the 76-year-old writer divides his time between Bush, La., and Maine.

1st Books Library charges authors an initial setup fee of $399 for electronic books, an additional $199 for paperbacks, $350 more for hardcover books and additional fees for promotional activities. Writers can choose any or all of the options.

E-books are downloaded when payment is received, while traditional books are printed, then shipped as ordered. Royalties paid to authors exceed traditional publishing standards. Writers are paid 100 percent for e-books up to the first $300 in sales and 40 percent thereafter. Royalties for paperback and hardcover books are 30 percent.

This is a good deal for writers who have time to do their own marketing and who are determined to publish something that can be distributed easily and inexpensively among family and friends. Titles listed by 1st Books Library range from self-help to memoir to religious to academic to mainstream fiction.

Organ’s book fits into the last category. He has taken the advice given to many beginning authors and written about what he knows. In Organ’s case, that is the law. “Officers of the Court” is about an antiques dealer facing federal charges who gets ensnared in a web woven by his competitors and an ambitious Louisiana politician.

Colin Briggs has a system that allows him to undersell every other antiques dealer in the Big Easy. He has warehouses across the country and “pickers,” or subcontractors, who scour the New England countryside for bargains. When Briggs has a cash flow problem a few years before the novel opens, he sends copies of his inventory list to potential investors.

Unbeknownst to Briggs, his inventory is inaccurate and inflated. That brings federal investigators, sent by his politically connected competitors, to his door. Briggs turns to former federal prosecutor Hobart Rader to defend him against charges he doesn’t begin to understand. Life only gets worse for Briggs when he finds out the star witness against him is his former office manager and ex-lover, Ginger Cook.

While this does set up some intrigue for readers, there is a reason authors of courtroom drama such as John Grisham and Scott Turow put their protagonists in situations where the stakes are higher than mail fraud. It’s hard for a reader to care whether a guy gets convicted for faking his inventory. Since he’s a first-time offender, it’s unrealistic that he’d go to prison and highly unlikely that the case would even go to trial.

It’s even harder for the reader to care about what happens to Colin Briggs. He’s hardly a guy worthy of much sympathy. He unceremoniously dumped Ginger when the romantic flames flickered to take up with a gorgeous, not-so-bright TV reporter. This guy should go to jail just because he’s a louse.

What Organ really needs but did not get from 1st Books Library is a good editor. The book is about 50 pages too long. The author fails to capture the feel of New Orleans though he must know it intimately. His dialogue seems stilted at times, and the pace of the story moves forward in fits and starts.

The author, however, knows the law and legal maneuvering. Organ’s strength is his ability to portray attorneys jousting over a point of law, to describe what actually happens inside a courtroom and the way lawyers really consult with their clients, including how much information they hold back.

“Officers of the Court” is a promising start for Organ, who is at work on two other novels. Like many first-time authors, he needs a strong editor to nurture and direct his work so it achieves its full potential. Even Grisham and Turow needed that.