Rye James has a tall mission on his hands. Saving the Western genre is no easy task. Walk into any bookstore and you'll find dwindling sections for Westerns, or some that have no section at all. If you're lucky enough to walk into a store that does have them, what you'll find is the usual list of names. You'll find L'Amour, Compton, Johnstone, Brand, etc. What you usually don't find are new authors. James is trying to get over that hurdle. Here is an interview I had with James discussing a variety of topics:
Q: Why do you think the Western has diminished in popularity?
A: I'm not really sure. I don't believe it's because people don't want to see or read them. I think the people in power of books or movies just have it in their heads that people won't support it.
Q: You've published The Assassin on your own, correct?
A: Yeah, I took it to the major houses, and they all turned it down. Not because it wasn't a good story, but because it was a Western. They all thought it was a good story, they just didn't think it'd sell on the basis of the genre.
Q: How well do you think it'll do?
A: I don't really know. I don't have any illusions of making the NYT best seller list. My only goal is to try and reach every person who reads Westerns and hopefully they find the story interesting enough to give it a try.
Q: You're also donating part of the book profits to St. Jude Childrens Hospital. How did that come about?
A: Well, I just think that every person who's in a position to help others should do what they can. I will choose a different charity for each book.
Q: The book is starting to generate some buzz. I've even heard some comparisons of you to L'Amour. How do you feel about that?
A: It makes me pretty uncomfortable to tell you the truth. I guess if it helps to sell books, and introduce people to my work, maybe it's not such a bad thing. But just in the comparison itself, to compare me to L'Amour is pretty ridiculous, at least at this stage in my career.
Q: You're a big advocate of Westerns, but that's not the only genre you write in, right?
A: Yeah, I love Westerns, but I don't want to pigeonhole myself. My next book is called Escape, which is a mystery thriller. I've also got a couple storylines for other fantasy and mystery type stories, so I like different genres and I think it helps to keep things fresh.
Elizabeth