The Publishing Racket

Despite the enforced one day off, I was not subjected to reading Patterson. I wrote each of the other four days and I think I'm about halfway through. Of course that leaves me with the feeling: how am I going to fill the other half?

I didn't have any surprise characters appearing from under a bed, but I was surprised by how some of my characters behaved. They never tell me ahead of time and that could drive a writer crazy or it could be exhilarating. This brings me back to the topic of outlining or not.

If I did outline I'd know how to fill the other half today. I'd also lose all interest. Now I'm eager to see what happens Monday.

So about the publishing game. Last week I learned from good authority that things are about to change. This probably won't be big news to anyone, but some of it was to me.

No more mass paperbacks. The companies are slowly phasing them out. Barnes & Noble won't order any new ones. If you go to their website I think you'll see that the paperbacks they're selling are not current. When the ones they have are sold or returned to publishers, that will be the end of them for B&N.

Trade paperbacks are going to take their place for now. And eventually there'll be no more hardcovers. This might not apply to libraries. Although I've noticed in the libraries around here there are more and more trade paperbacks on the shelves.

So is this a good or bad thing? I think it's fine. How many people want to pay seven or eight dollars for a mass market paperback? Trade paperbacks are anywhere from ten to fourteen dollars. And they look nice and last longer.

Writers have always had a snob thing about being published in paper instead of hardcover. Many of them think they're not a real writer if they're not published in hardcover. I think that idea is nonsense not to mention very old.

The best example I can give is Jason Starr. He's published in trade paperback and if that weren't true I doubt I would've bought him in hardcover. That would've been my loss. I think he's one of the best writers around and there's no need for him to publish in hardcover. He may feel differently about it, but I hope he doesn't.

Don't we want to get the most people we can to read our books? I think trade paperback will fulfill that wish. If you've ever been to France or England you know that's how most books are published there. I guess they have mass paperbacks but I don't recall them. I certainly didn't buy any to have sent home.

So is it a good thing to drop mass paperbacks and go to trade? And how important to your sales is it to be published in hardcover? Or is the importance to your ego?

Quote

"I think a little menace is fine to have in a story.  For one thing, it's good for the circulation."

Raymond Carver

A Five Day Week! And Another First

Yes.  I did it.  I wrote five days of this past week.  Even though I was interrupted by my computer man, I was able to go back to work.

I'm moving along now.  I keep telling myself to just get it down. I'm not going to worry at this stage whether it hangs together, makes complete sense, or even if it's good.  Well, I'm not quite that laid back.  By the end of next week I should reach the halfway point.

As I mentioned before, I do have to go to NYC on Wednesday to see a friend's play, which is performed at lunch time.  So next week is a legitimate four day week and I won't have to read James Patterson unless I lose another day by slacking off.

My other first is that This Dame for Hire was taken by the Mystery Guild as a July Alternate.  I've never had a sale to this book club.  This isn't about money (very small advance) it's about exposure.  I'm very happy about this deal.

 

 

Not My Fault

So it wasn't a five day week.  Again.  It was four.  But only because I woke up on Thursday to no heat.  It was very, very cold in here.  My fingers couldn't type.  It's the truth!  Didn't get heat back until around noon.  And I couldn't start writing then because I just can't do it at that hour on the first draft.

I reached the end of my rewriting on Monday.  It's been all new from there.  I'm not exactly zipping along, but it's better than where I was when I stopped to start over.

I've decided that from now on, every hour I miss on my writing schedule, I 'll have to read that many hours of something by James Patterson.  This is the aversion technique.  Anybody have any ideas which one to start with?  Just the thought of it makes me feel that I'll have a five day week coming up.

The following week I have to go into NYC on that Wednesday.  This is a must.  So I'll lose that day.  And I don't think it counts re the reading of Patterson.  I'm not going to torture myself if my lost time is something I can't help. 

I've set myself up for the next chapter so I feel relatively calm about sitting down here on Monday morning.  I wish I felt a sense of excitement about it.  That happens from time to time, from book to book.  But it hasn't happened during the writing of this novel.  Well, I still have two thirds to write so there's a chance I'll get that wonderful jolt. 

 

Dreams

Don't you hate it when someone wants to tell you their dream?  Unless the teller says "I dreamt about you last night" you have no real interest.

The author of a novel is never going to have a dream about you.  So why must so many of them tell us dreams?  I've just finished two books loaded with dreams.  One of them I recommended below, but only because the rest of the book is so good.  Still, I wish he hadn't done it.

I hate dreams in novels.  Why should I have to interpret a dream?  I want the author to interpret it in the sense that she/he uses another device to give me the same information.

A line or two of a dream is acceptable if it's meaningful and easy to understand.  But pages of dream recall?  Never.  I think writing long dreams in a novel is the lazy way out.  Oh, I can hear you now saying, but complicated dreams on the page take a great deal of skill.  Skill for what purpose?  Perhaps to show off?  I wish I could put a ban on dreams longer than two sentences. 

Just tell me the story.

Quote

 "A writer's brain is like a magician's hat. If you're going to get anything out of it, you have to put something in it first."

Louis L'Amour

Where Am I Now?

Intoxicated with the RD sale, I realize I haven't updated my progress with the novel I'm writing.  Once again, it's the second in the series and Ballantine will be publishing it in July 2006.  This will be coordinated with the paperback release of the first in the series.  That's the way publishers set a schedule if you're writing a series.

It was a four day week but I was very disciplined.  I thought I'd be through with the rewriting by now but I'm not.  The reason is because I had a lot more changes to make in the chapters I had already written than I thought I had.

This week there are only one and a half chapters to rewrite.  By midweek I should be going into completely new territory.  Actually what I'm writing now is new territory, because the person who is being interviewed was the one who was dead in the first version.  So I have a new voice to write.

Except for who did it, I couldn't tell you now, if you asked, exactly where this novel is going.  But I feel comfortable with that.  I believe I'll be able to move along without anymore headaches than I would have naturally. I tell myself the worst is over.

There is no reason this can't be a five day week. 

Clearing Up A Misunderstanding

Anonymous asked me this:

Does this mean it will only be published in the Readers Digest format or can you publish with another publisher?
Was this your only option for the new novel?

The sale to Reader's Digest is a bonus.  Ballantine is publishing the book in early July.  And this is not the book I'm working on now.

This sale is known as part of subsidiary rights.  I'll share the money with Ballantine.  As far as I know RD doesn't publish anything for condensed books that hasn't come out earlier in a regular edition.

So don't worry Anonymous, this is good. My sale to Ballantine happened in early 2004.  And now I'm working on, and complaining about, the second book in the series.

Another First

My novel THIS DAME FOR HIRE, the first of the series, just sold to Reader's Digest.  It will be in one of those volumes of condensed books; the kind you don't even look at at yard sales.

But I'm not complaining.  This is not only an unexpected check, it's very good publicity I'm told.  I've never sold to them before.  I guess they weren't interested in lesbians or a serial killer who was knocking off nuns.

I'm not completely sure I know what it says about the novel.  I guess it doesn't offend anyone.  This is also a first for me.

The End of Another Writing Week

It was only 4 days.  And I'd made a vow not to distract myself with email, reading blogs or anything else.

Tuesday and Wednesday I failed.  I wrote, but switching to email and other things made it unsatisfactory.  On Thursday and Friday I prevailed.  No distractions.  I got a lot done and more links became clear.  No, not those kind of links.  Clue links.  Family links. Killer links.

Do I feel good about two days of complete concentration?  You bet.  There's nothing like it when it goes well.  I'm excited that the words and situations are making sense and it's beginning to read like a novel.

It may not be as startling as the first version, but what good was that when I couldn't make it add up?

Although I'm still rewriting there are some pages that are new.  By the end of next week I should be finished with rewriting and it'll all be fresh from there. 

Yes, that's scary.  My setup is done and I'll be continuing to interview suspects and unraveling histories with perhaps a surprise or two to the reader. Maybe even to me.  On the other hand, scary or not, I'll be glad to be writing new stuff.

It's not clear sailing by any means.  I anticipate hard days, mistakes, irritation.  Still, I don't think I'll discover again that I've got the damn thing all wrong.

So I count this week as a success. Even though there were only 2 days out of 4 that were what I wanted them to be, I feel I've broken a bad habit and that I'll now be able to write with discipline as I always have.  Three to four hours a day or at least 5 pages, whichever comes first.

I know some people write all day or all night.  I've never done that.  But when I was younger I'd get 10 pages done in those three or four hours.  Ed McBain would laugh at me. I think I read somewhere that he still writes from 9-6 and he's been doing this a little longer than I have.

Being successful this week makes me feel I deserve the weekend.  But I wish I didn't feel I deserve desserts.  More than I have in a long time, I'll really enjoy reading, viewing and whatever else I do.

Thanks to all who've been rooting for me.

Oh, one more thing.  If the Oscars on Sunday night don't end on time I'll be too tired to write on Monday.  I wonder if I'll ever work a 5 day week again.

Forgot

The revised cover art came to me this week. They shortened the hem and untwisted her body. Hooray!!! I think it's a very good jacket.

This Last Writing Week

I've now rewritten 6 and a half chapters.  The last 3 were almost a complete rewrite.  I keep telling myself that when the novel is actually completed I'll have less rewriting to do.  But that's the part I enjoy so it doesn't comfort me.

It's been a struggle not to go on the Inernet to ostensibly look up things.  We all know where that leads.  One thing to another.  Each day I promise myself that I won't do that.  I might have to check something out through Gurunet but I don't have to go any farther once I get my answer.  Still, I continue to do it.

I don't launch my email program but if I launch my browser, Mozilla, I can see my email from my home page.  Ok, so I don't answer it.  That's the only thing I resist.

I have to stop all that.  I have to get down to work.  I can't get distracted.  If I want to do these things I'll do them after I finish writing.  This is my vow for the coming week.

Even with all my diversions I think I know more than I did.  I might even know by now (page 80) who did it.  And why.  I have a lot of rewriting and changing of things ahead of me.  There are 5 more chapters to go before I get to write a new chapter.  Actually, there may not be that many because I took things from 10 and put them in 7.  And I may have to lose two characters all together.  But then I'll be adding a character who will get at least half a chapter.  She was dead in my first version.  How heady it is to bring someone back to life!

I know the prose I'm writing now is fairly lifeless.  I also know I can change that later so I'm not letting it worry me too much.  All in all it's been a battle.  I don't recall going through this before. Oh, I've been in despair at times, but I never had this kind of trouble. 

I just realized that I killed the wrong person again having done that once before in a YA book, Playing Murder, but I caught that one at around 100 pages.  This time I didn't know I'd done it until I started rewriting.

It's caused me a lot of trouble.  And other things have too...all those corners I got myself into.  As it stands now there aren't any. 

I keep wondering if ,without those corners am I writing a dull book?  And then I remember they were corners I couldn't do anything about.  I might get into some new ones as I go along and can only hope that they'll be ones I can write my way out of.

Those of you who've read my blog before know that I take any holiday I can.  I mean, how could I possibly write on Presidents' Day?

Is this book dull?  Is this book dull?  Is this book dull?

 

A Writer Friend Who Has A Part Time Job Says:

There's a lot to be said for selling your time, and never having to rewrite it.

Titles

A post to his blog by Olen Steinhauer about titles being changed in other countries got me thinking about my own experience with this subject.

My new book (the first in series of the current one I'm struggling with) was originally QUICK. My protagonist is Faye Quick and I liked using her last name as the title of the first book. I imagined that quick would appear in subseqent titles like QUICK ON THE TRIGGER, etc.

Once Ballantine bought it various people didn't like that title. I was very disappointed and irritated that I'd have to change it. I told my editor what I'd planned (he liked the title) and he made the case to the people he needed to convince. No go. Because of my contract I could've insisted but I haven't come this far to shoot myself in the foot. I managed to do that years ago one way or another. I knew if I was stubborn about this it would hurt me, hurt the book. So I agreed to try to come up with something over a weekend.

I started out that weekend very grumpy. But I knew I had to come up with something. So I began looking through books on noir films as this novel takes place in 1943 and has an unorthodox sense of noir.

I tried out different titles, changing a word in them, but nothing clicked. And then I heard that click. There was THIS GUN FOR HIRE with Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd. I honestly got a chill when I replaced gun with dame. THIS DAME FOR HIRE is the title of the new book. It's so much better than QUICK. I'm grateful to the faceless group at Ballantine who forced me to make the change. This was a positive experience.

A negative experience I had was with a book I wrote many years ago. It was a novel about a boy who kills his whole family. I called it A NICE QUIET BOY. You know how the neighbors always say this sort of thing on television about the kid who slaughters everyone.

But, oh no. Since I'd written YA novels in the past, the faceless group at Putnam decided this title made it sound like a YA novel. Once again I was asked to come up with something else. I went through tons of titles but nothing clicked. I finally agreed to SUCH NICE PEOPLE, which I hated. This was one time I should have been stubborn. My original title was better and made more sense.

In Olen's case he was talking about title changes in different countries. He writes, " It's been verified in the UK that my third book, which was acquired by Harper Collins will be called The Vienna Assignment-while in the US it's called 36 Yalta Boulevard ."

I don't see the point of this change, nor does he. Still he had no say in the matter.

I've had some of my books translated into other languages. My last series had titles that were a play on song titles or lines from songs. The French publisher changed all of them (5) to titles that had nothing to do with anything, in my opinion. The last one, which was called GONNA TAKE A HOMICIDAL JOURNEY was changed to LONG ISLAND BLUES. Yes, it does take place on Long Island...but really.

I had no say in the title choice for the foreign sales. I didn't like it, but I don't think it stopped any sales because those books did very well in France.

I guess my point here is that if you have the right to choose your own title and a publisher doesn't like it, think it over very carefully before you refuse. See if you can come up with something better and if you can't and are wedded to the original title, then stick to it. But if you do, know that you won't get the same support from the sales people, who in case you didn't know, actually run the book business!

Quote

 "Fiction's essential activity is to imagine how others feel, what a Saturday afternoon in an Italian town in the 2nd Century looked like. My ambition is solely to get some effect, as of light on stone in a forest on a September day".

Guy Davenport

Listen for the Click

I think I've broken through this murk I've been whining about.  If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you may remember The Surprise Character that came at the end of Chapter 2.  I wrote about how much fun that was, and it usually is.  But now I believe, that in this case, she (the surprise character) was the very thing that tripped me up.

In rewriting Chapter 2 for the third time, when I came to the surprise character I heard the click and I changed the gender of the character.  That was it.  I think.  I hope.

I know I didn't wake up depressed this morning.  And even though I hadn't slept well I was able to fix Chapter 3.

I still don't know who did it, but that feels okay now.

Someone named Bullfighter left me an interesting comment on my Feb. 8th post.  I thought what he had to say was worth thinking about.  I keep saying he because Bullfighter referred to his girlfriend but that doesn't mean B. is a man. Still, I think he is.  Who knows how much his comments had to do with me listening for the click.  Although I don't think I'm afraid to get to the end, the idea intrigued me.

So for the moment I feel pretty good.  I still have quite a bit to solve, other than who did it, but I have more confidence about moving forward.

We'll see.  Won't we?

Listen for the Click is the title of a novel by Jon L. Breen.

BTW, I wish people who comment would leave an email address or some way to write back, because I often want to reply and can't find a way.

Quote

It took me a year€'™s groping to discover what I call my tunneling process, by which I tell the past by installments, as I have need of it.

Virginia Woolf

One More Time

Did the weekend refresh me?  Not a bit.  I did another chapter yesterday.  It was okay.

But when I didn't want to get out of bed today, I knew it wasn't okay.

I talked to a writing friend who said maybe I should chuck this and start over with a new plot.  I almost sank to the floor thinking about this.  My friend made some suggestions for going about this new plot attack.  They were good.  And I decided that's what I'd do.

While I got dressed I thought about it.  I have five and a half months to my deadline.  Doing some research now and starting over in about a week or so seemed impossible.

So when I came to my desk I decided to give this plot one more shot from a different angle.  I just finished writing chapter 1 for the third time.

I think I've gotten myself out of even more corners.  But is it interesting this way?  I don't know.  Is it fun writing it?  No.  But, hey, where is it written that I should have fun doing this?

My trusty reader will take a pass at this new chapter this afternoon.  And if it's okay I'll start rewriting chapter 2 tomorrow for the third time.

I'm aware that I might rewrite five or six more chapters and come to the same conclusion I came to this morining.  Dump it.  And if that happens I'll start a new book with four months until deadline.  Yes, I know they give you leeway, but not that much.  And I like to make deadlines.  I always have.

I've never wanted to know who did it more than I do now.

A Little Help From A Friend

Below are the words a friend sent me after reading my last few entries. She is a writer and has been publishing novels for over 50 years.
-----------------------------------
Your latest blog entry makes me see you really are stressed. Of course I often think two things are at work when we write our best.

One, it's such familiar territory, so ready to jump off the page that it does and it's good. The second one is the sneak punch. It's horrible in the creating. A struggle with many false stops and starts. In my case there is often a great deal of false euphoria attached to the struggle, times when I'm so elated with "how it's coming" that I can't see it's really going.

In between are the old, faithful professional jobs neither outstanding nor below par: just what they should be.

I hope you solve things. I have a feeling you will, only because I've been there. Instead of a blog I have The Inside Enemy. He's always around and sneering and suggesting I'm staying too long at the dance, suggesting who the hell will read this? suggesting I ought to sell my house and retire to Florida etc. etc.

-----------------------

I found this comforting and helpful.

I've now rewritten four chapters and I feel good about them. It's going better than I thought it would. Still, I'm not at the really tough places yet. But my setup is getting neater and making more sense.

I'll be thinking about it over the weekend as I read other people's books, and maybe go to a movie. Whatever I do I know my book will be constantly in a part of my mind. This time my mind might cooperate.

Trying Something Different

I gave my manuscript to another writer I trust. I never have anyone read my work while I'm in the process of writing. I only let another person read my novel when I feel finished. So this was not only unusual for me, it was also a little scary. But I thought, what have I got to lose?

She read it and we talked. I realize now that I have to change a lot of things. As she said, "Nobody could get out of the holes you wrote yourself into."

So flying by the seat of my pants didn't work this time. By now the magic should have happened. By magic I mean that things should have fallen into place.

Lee Goldberg asks if I write with an outline. The answer is no. I think I've addressed this before, but since he asked I'll explain again.

I couldn't stand to have an outline. The idea of knowing where I'm going is hideous to me. Anyway, I couldn't write an outline when I never know who did it until I'm at about page 100. I don't want to know who did it when I start. It would spoil everything for me just as if I was reading a book and knew who did it from the beginning. Before I start I know who my protagonist is (in this case I know a lot about her because it's the second in a series) and who has been killed. That has always worked for me before. And now it's failed me. I still won't do an outline.

I did learn from my reader that I had to drop some characters and move some to other locations. I had to give different occupations to a few. My reader said, "I definitely wouldn't scrap it because there is a lot of good stuff in here." This was nice to hear. But the fact that I have to rewrite before I'm ready to rewrite doesn't thrill me. I'm still not sure where I'm going. It's possible with the changes that I make I'll find out.

This morning I went grocery shopping. Soon I'm going to take a shower. Tomorrow I'll start to make the changes.

I feel like I'm in hell.