Myrtle Beach writer took unconventional publishing path

T. Lynn Ocean came ashore in unconventional fashion.

The traditional trajectory in genre book publishing is to prove one’s self in paperback before earning the reward and prestige of a hardcover release.

The Myrtle Beach novelist’s first book in her Jersey Barnes mystery series, “Southern Fatality,” was introduced in hardcover by St. Martin’s Press last year. Her second, by the publisher’s imprint Minotaur, is in mass market paperback. And she’s delighted at the prospect.

“They started me out backwards,” says Ocean, whose second Barnes foray, “Southern Poison,” is due out in September. “My goal is to entertain. It’s why I write. And you build up a readership base much more quickly in softcover.”

Read more in Sunday's Arts and Travel section.