SOURCE: "Publishers Agree: True Crime Does Pay," in Publishers Weekly, Vol. 237, June 1, 1990, pp. 33-6.

[In the following essay, Herbert discusses the characteristics of the true-crime genre, focusing her analysis on who reads it and why.]

What's black and white and read all over? The answer is true crime. According to many top executives, editors and publicists, the success of this category is so phenomenal, it's almost criminal! As PW made the rounds of publishing houses and crime writers, the same word was used repeatedly to diagnose the current health of the genre: "hot." And feverish activity in the field seems to be contagious, with at least 30 trade imprints seeking to satisfy the true crime cravings of readers from all segments of the American population.

Both frontlist and backlist are booming, and mass market titles seem to do equally well in bookstores and ID markets. Hardcover and paperback publishers...