Writer No No's

Another great and informative writing life article I found at M.J. Rose blog... Top 10 Things Not To Do As An Author/Writer. Check it out...
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Cool NYC Event

In case you're in, or heading to, NYC in a week or so... Get location info from Brooklyn Boy Blues blog.
Sounds like fun times!

Finding Audience: A Double Life

A really informative entry on book publicity from Tayari Jones, who has just completed her second book tour. You can also find the same entry on Tayari's blog.
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Shelf Life

If it's payday, and you're a writer with aspirations of being published, try to buy yourself at least one of the resources listed in this previous blog entry I wrote in March. Or at least try and find one at a library.

Just this morning I was glancing through one of the books and just getting myself prepped for a day of book work. Opened up right to a section focusing on the shelf life of a book... aka, how long your book has to make it or break it according to publishing industry rules.

You get three months, basically.

Commercial publishers develop lists of their books: spring, summer, fall, winter. Each list has certain types of books, depending upon what types of audience they're going after, or what awards they want the book considered for, or what holidays your book may appeal to, or what season holds less competition for your type of book, etc...

After that season, it's time for the next list. And those books that came out in the previous season are no longer A-List news. And unless they're a knockout hit, the publisher will no longer concentrate its efforts on your book. Time for the next season's books. They get packed away and sent back to warehouse, or remaindered, or sent to those $1 book stores. My editor joked with me a couple weeks ago: that's not good when that happens. So, for example, my book comes out July 5. I have until late September or early October to "work" the book, but really concentrating on July and August. After that, time to shift to book number two.

Now, what's important about this is that even though most books, theoretically, get three months of sink or swim treatment, authors must do a lot of prep work prior to those three months. Sometimes working six months or a year prior to publication date. Developing mailing lists. Sending out preview copies. Making relationships with book clubs. Working with editor and agent (if with a commercial publisher) on a successful launch. Looking for every possible lead for events and readings (it's not just the publisher's job to develop events, unless you're Jackie Collins or Terry McMillan).

Books can get another life. For example, when/if your second books is published, you can go back and promote that you have a first book for your new readers. Or, if your early books suddenly tie in with a breaking news story. Or, if one of your early books gets optioned for stage, tv, or film production.

Anyway, this is all interesting to me... and just wanted to pass it along.

Have any thoughts on the book shelf life subject?
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Classic Y&R Moment... Yeah, I'm Late

This is Nick, Sharon, and Cassie Newman. Fictional characters, but still...

OK. So I'm like three weeks behind on TIVO and all my Young and The Restless episodes. You know, New York, work, writing, etc... I'm catching up... in a MAJOR way.

But been crying my eyes out this morning. I had no clue one of the major characters was going to pass away. My goodness, I'm crying like it's a member of my own family or group of friends.

Good writing and acting. No one does daytime drama like Young and The Restless.

OK. Let me stop and get back to reality.
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Editorial Notes

I'm fortunate to have a great editor and a great agent. They are two people I feel like I just click with, especially for the first book process.

But when it came to hearing the feedback on Down For Whatever (formerly Same Script, Different Cast), I was scared crapless.

I'd heard horror stories from other author friends who said the editing process was going to be a battle. That it was a constant back and forth, ongoing arguing and debating, about what stays and what goes; what expands and what shrinks. So I prepped myself for the possibility of a not so fun time with editing and revising the manuscript.

Fortunately, it was painless. It was cool, actually. While there were areas that my editor saw needed strengthening, overall he found the manuscript I submitted in good shape. In fact, the parts of the book I thought would be changed (like slang, like pop culture, like race and ethnicity stuff) were left intact. Quite the contrary from what I expected. I guess all experiences are different.

For those of you who want an idea of what an editorial letter might include, below you'll find an edited version of my editorial notes. Deleting names so as not to give anything about DFWs plot away. Happy reading... and editing.

From editor:

"Here at long last are my editorial notes. The manuscript is in good shape, there were just a few spots to revise. Nothing that's going to be too hard for you to handle so with that in mind, let's get started...

P. 28: "And let's not talk about the lack of a sex life..." Again, why no sex between them? _____ is hot. _______ is hot. What are they waiting for? What gives?

P. 69: Even though you go into details later, give us a little backstory on _______ on this page. Try to flesh him out. Right now all he is is a name. That tells us nothing about who he is or why we should care about him being introduced to the story now.

P. 174: "That figures..." After this, get us into _______'s head more. Give us some backstory. Let us know his relationship with his brother... were they close growing up or not? If they were close, did that change when ______ came out? We need to know why we should care about the family dynamics.

P. 176: 3rd paragraph. It's better to SHOW the reader, rather than to TELL things to them. Let's see this scene unfolding between _____ and ______. Better than just running through what happened.

P. 243: "I think I'm falling for______. It's different than anything I've felt for someone..." After this, get us into his head more. Let us know more about his feelings for ______. Compare/contrast to previous relationships or tricks. What's so appealing about ____ now, since he's been afraid to get close to someone before?

And that's it, Fred. Send revised pages first. Disk later. If there are other spots in manuscript to address these points, feel free to do so. Need in a month."

And that was it. Well, just a few short examples of suggestions. There were many more I didn't list here. My editor was timely with everything. I was timely with getting everything back to him. I thought that was the end. Let the galley printing begin.

Then came the copy editor notes (grammar, punctuation, word choice, story and character consistency, etc...) about a month later. Now, I thought if one area I was an expert in was grammar.

Not even close.

The copy editing process... that's a whole 'nother game. More on that later... But the lesson to be learned... no manuscript or piece of writing is perfect. Even when you think it is. Even when it's about to be published. You always think of or see something else...

Happy editing!
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O, This Is Not Me... But 20,000 Crunches, 78 Straight Days On Treadmill, Subtract 9.5 years, And...

This could have been me. But it's not. lol.

This is Omarion. I watch too much 106 and Park. Too much to no longer be a teeny bopper.

How little must I eat to look like this? How much more can I run? Maybe it's the belt and jeans that I'm missing. Or the nice gloss on the lips. Hmmm...

OK. Get over it. Let's lament food and fitness and fame... how about a visit to Carmen and Jane blog? Or Holiday-N? Or visit the boys in Brooklyn? Or Rod's take on Omarion?

Hmmm. Break over. Back to writing about writing. Tomorrow :-)
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Save The World... While You Can

Congressman John Conyers, a Democrat from my hometown, Detroit, wants a full Senate hearing on the Secret Downing Street Memo, which suggests that our current regime in Washington D.C. planned the war in Iraq long before any excuses and justifications were presented to the U.S. public. Excuses that most people bought blindly. Now, 1700+ U.S. deaths later, polls suggest most of us think it was a big mistake.

Of course most of us who are progressive, thinking types knew the whole war was/is a farce and an excuse for making rich people richer, and for sending poor black and brown boys off to fight and die for causes unjustified. (And on a side note, please tell your younger brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews that college is a much better option than the military... there's more military recruiters than college recruiters in most of our inner city public schools these days!!!)

I didn't know anything about John Conyers' efforts to make this public through hearings in Washington. None of the major news networks or papers are covering it. Heard about it this morning on Air America radio and the Stephanie Miller Show. Heard the Republicans are making it difficult for a hearing to happen. They don't think it's important. They are the "majority". "Majority" rules. Kinda like white, religious majority rules, if you get my drift. Howard Dean wasn't too off his rocker, but the mainstream media wants to suggest he's off the mark calling the Republican Party "pretty much a white, Christian party."

If you get Air America in your town, try to listen and support. Or any public radio station in your town for that matter.

These days, journalism is a farce of what it used to be. When getting all sides of every story was important. When questioning those in authority was the norm. When being paid by the government was not the way to get a story and particular view aired. That's not what I learned at Mizzou.

Send John Conyers or your own reps a note saying you applaud his efforts to get these hearings started and in public. Let Barbara Lee know you support her standing up in the face of adversity and ridicule. Barbara Boxer and Michael Moore, too.
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