Quote

"There is a difference between a book of two hundred pages from the very beginning, and a book of two hundred pages which is the result of an original eight hundred pages. The six hundred are there. Only you don't see them."

Elie Wiesel

Delta and Numbers

I got word this week that Delta Airlines has bought an excerpt of This Dame for Hire for their inflight magazine.  No, I’ve never had this happen before.  And I wonder if somehow they believe this will keep them out of bankruptcy.

My worry about a new contract was not completely paranoid.  Here is an exchange between my agent and editor.

Agent to editor: Do you want to talk about another 2 book deal? 

 

Editor to agent:  As for talking about another deal, yes!  I want to talk--but I'm told I have to wait another month (at least) for a clear picture of sales on Book One.  Can we make a date to talk at the end of October?

 

Didn’t I say that it was all about the numbers?  I did.  And this is what is meant above.  I will probably be offered a 2 book contract, but the offer will be dependent on the sales.  So they could offer me less money than what I got before.  If that happens, what will I do?

 

It doesn’t matter that all the reviews were positive; that the Mystery Guild bought it; audio bought it; Reader’s Digest and Delta weighed in.  Only the numbers count.

 

I’ve been publishing long enough to remember when numbers had nothing to do with a contract. 

 

So what will I do?

 

I have no idea.

 

Fun

I recently got a fan email in which the writer said, “ I'm interested in writing a mystery strictly for fun”.

Fun?

Anyone who thinks it’s fun to write any kind of novel should be disabused of that notion right now.  Writing is hard work.  Research might be fun.  But even that, depending on what you’re digging for, can become difficult.  But writing fun?  Never.

Sure there are those days when everything goes right and I feel ecstatic.  But I never say to myself, gee I had fun at the keyboard this morning.

What one produces might be fun to read.  If you’re writing a novel that intends to be fun and succeeds, that’s a bonus.  But that novel took work.  It might look easy and breezy (and that’s credit to the writer) but it’s never easy and breezy to write.

A produced playwright once said to me, “I love mystery novels and I think I’m going to write one so I can give back something after all these years of reading pleasure.”

Have you ever heard anything more arrogant?  Well, yes, I have, too, but that’s right up there.  Incidently he never wrote a novel.  This was a case of a writer thinking he could write in any form because he’s a writer.  I’m sure he’d never be that cavalier about writing a play.  But a mystery novel is just so much fun because it’s not really writing, is it?  It’s fun.

Guess what. It really is writing.  And to write a novel you have to want to do it more than anything.  You have to know that it’s hard work and takes discipline.

Some of the finest  writing I’ve ever read is in mysteries and crime novels.  It doesn’t matter what kind of novel you set out to write…it’s damn hard.

Copyeditor

There were no yellow post its.  I’d forgotten that they don’t do that anymore.  The marks were on the manuscript.  And what a nightmare those marks were.

This copyeditor took it upon herself (and it was a she) to make everyone talk the same.  And she changed the spelling of words like: whaddaya to what d’ya.  This was in dialogue.  My main character often says yer for you’re and ya for you.  But many times, for reasons of awkward pronounciations, I don’t do that. She changed them.

I’ve had three days of putting everything back the way it was.

She did pick up on repetition from one chapter to another.  That’s what she’s supposed to do.  She is not supposed to change my dialogue in any way.

I complained to my editor and he said he’d certainly speak to the person in charge of hiring these freelance editors.  There was nothing we could do about it now.  I knew that, of course.

I got so confused by her changes that I’m not sure things are consistent now.  I wrote a note to my editor about this and sent it with the manuscript.  I hope he’ll take a look or have someone with a brain do that to make sure things are consistent.

Now I’ll have to gird myself for the inevitable argument about the jacket.

No new contract yet.  My agent said she has to check on the sales ( the publishers have these figures every week because of computers) before she goes into negotiations.

Why do I feel they’re not going to give me a new contract?  Paranoia? Pessimism?  Reality? If the book didn’t sell well it’s perfectly possible that they won’t give me a new contract.  My thinking is how could people know the book was out there when they didn’t take an ad anywhere?  But then maybe it just didn’t sell well, despite good reviews.

What will become of me?

 

It's Here

The copy-edited manuscript of Too Darn Hot arrived this morning.  I’ve put it on a table in my office, unopened.  It will stay unopened until Monday.

A reader left me a comment on my post in which I said I knew it was coming, I wasn’t looking forward to it, but I wasn’t wary because the last time I got the copy-edited manuscript from Ballantine it was fine.

Mapletree7 asked, “Fill us in.  What’s to dread?”

Any writer reading this probably knows.  For years I would get the copy-edited manuscript back and go nuts.  They put little yellow tags on a page when they’re questioning something.  When you open the package there seem to be hundreds of them.  And the questions they ask, for the most part, are ridiculous, annoying, stupid and enraging.  Example: What is an out building? What is a rep tie?  Who are Nick and Nora?  On and on. Some even rewrite your sentences.

But with my last book, This Dame for Hire, that didn’t happen.  The copy-edit was sensible and modest.  So I don’t dread it the way I have.  Still, you never know. It’s doubtful that  I got the same copy-editor I had last time.  If, when I open the package, I see a plethora of yellow tags my stomach will churn.  But I’ll try to be reasonable until I find something unreasonable.

I hope this answers the question.  I’d love to see outrageous edits from others.

 

Explanation

My agent called my editor about the advertising of This Dame For Hire that was promised on the back of the galley.  He called me.

He said he knows it’s a problem and he’s talked about it at meetings.  Not just my book, but the whole process.  He’s even said, “Why can’t we be honest?”  I’m surprised he wasn’t fired for that.

Apparently it’s a practice that’s widespread and the feeling is that the bookstore owners will never remember.  Maybe that’s true.  Or maybe, since it happens all the time, they pay no attention to what’s on a galley.

It had never happened to me before, which is why I wrote about it in the first place.  But I have to say that my agent was on the case when she returned from France, and my editor felt I was owed an explanation.

I appreciate them both.

Waiting for the copy-edited manuscript of Too Darn Hot. I think it will arrive tomorrow.  If it’s anything like the copy-edited manuscript of This Dame, I don’t have much to worry about.  I don’t look forward to it, but I’m not wary the way I was the first time.

What kind of fool am I?

 

Another Step

Yesterday my editor sent me the flap copy for Too Darn Hot. Part of it was good, but some things gave too much away. I emailed him about this (he’d asked for my input) and wondered what he’d think.

Same day he emailed me back, “I’ll make all the changes.”

I find it so strange that Ballantine does things so far in advance. Next week I get the copy-edited manuscript and I’m sure I’ll be getting jacket designs in a month. The book isn’t scheduled until summer 2006.

I would imagine that next week or the next, the negotiations for a new contract will begin.

Basically, This Dame for Hire is over until it comes out next summer in paper. Shelf life is incredibly short unless you’re a big name. It’s been two months and I’ll be lucky to get a few more weeks before the stores start sending the book back to make room for the Fall releases. On Amazon there are 52 used & new of my book. I’d buy one of those, wouldn’t you? And that, of course, brings me 0 royalties. I can hope that someone paid for all those books originally.

Writing for Television

Two people have asked that I say more about my television writing days. I didn’t do a lot, but I’ll try to remember what I did do.

A drama program named Playhouse 90 was on between 1956–61. My then agent got me a deal to write a tv play for the anthology show. It was a step-deal. I’m sure Lee Goldberg could explain this better, but I’ll give it a try. You were paid something on signing; when you handed in the script; then the rewrite (and there always was at least one); last on production. I didn’t get that far with this deal.

I did get to many meetings. The final one was in some upper east side restaurant with the director they’d chosen. He was Fred Coe. A very nice man. However, within weeks of this meeting the whole project was dropped. I never knew why. That’s the way it happened.

My soap writing experiences were awful (except for the money). The first was a short-lived soap called WHERE THE HEART IS. It had nothing to do with a novel by that name that came much later. The soap was on during the Sixties. I can’t remember a single thing about it. I don’t know who the head writer was except his first name. Bob.

The name for what I did escapes me. But I would get what was known as a breakdown for the script I was to write. Scripts were divided in five acts. Each act was outlined in a paragraph. I’ve since learned that most are pages long, but not on this show. I think I was given a week to do this, but somehow that seems too long. Maybe it was a week when I did 2 scripts per week.

I was meant to fill out each act in dialogue. And god help you if you tried to be funny. I felt I wrote pretty good dialogue, but it was always sent back to me with copious notes.

In the end I was fired. Everyone was fired. No one ever lasted. I did another later on and I can’t even remember which one it was, but it was one that was very popular. The head writer was a fairly well-known playwright but I’ll be damned if I can remember his name. When I quit he threatened me with a blackball so I could never write a soap again.

That was fine with me because I never wanted to write one again. Writing for a soap made me anxious, depressed and plain unhappy. I didn’t like the pressure and I didn’t like the idiocy of the whole thing.

One of the reasons I quit was because I got a deal for my last foray into writing for television. And that was for ABC’s The Wide World of Entertainment. This show came on at eleven and tried to compete with talk shows. My show aired the night some crisis (can’t remember what) happened in the world so it was bumped to a later time that night. As I said in another post the title was the best thing about it: A Little Bit Like Murder. I just tried finding a reference to it by googling the names of Elizabeth Hartman, Nina Foch and Sharon Gless who were all in it. Nobody listed my show. Getting the picture?

So that’s it.

My last experience of having a play mounted was in 1976. It was called Stuck and played in a theater way off-off Broadway. It was a strange part of New York City I wasn’t familiar with. It was called SoHo, but it didn’t mean anything to me then. In a few years I’d live there. Anyway, even though the last experience was a good one, I realized the collaborative life was not for me. And it was a good thing I was writing novels and enjoying it, because women playwrights were not sought after, and even though we’d had Lillian Hellman, no one broke that glass ceiling for years. Certainly not on Broadway. Even now the theaters on B’way are not filled with plays by women. Why is this still the case? I have no answer. Do you?

Quote

 "Mediocre writers borrow; great writers steal."

T. S. Eliot

Television Possibility

Had a good talk with the woman from the TV channel.  She called it a preliminary talk. I liked her, but I count on nothing.

She asked if I wanted to adapt the books should they want to do it.  I said no. I have no interest in anything like that.  Once I would’ve.  But now I’m strictly a novelist.  The idea of writing for movies or TV is a nightmare to me.

I wrote a spec scipt long ago that was optioned.  Went to Hollywood.  Got bounced around like I was in a rough ocean.  Nothing happened.

I had a TV script actually made for a late night drama show. The network was trying to compete with talk shows.  It was the first time I actually saw my words come to life on television.  Dreadful.  The only good thing was a woman in a very small part at the end.  She turned out to be Sharon Gless.  I have to admit it wasn’t a good script.  The only good thing was the title.  A Little Bit Like Murder.

I also wrote for a few soaps.  That was hell.  But it paid so well.  Still, I always got fired like everyone else.  The last time I quit and never looked back.

And now I’m at a point in my life where I don’t have the interest or the stamina to write for TV.  I would like to see these books made into a series, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

 

Maybe

Yesterday I was sent an email from a man at heretv.com.  He asked me if I’d send my phone number so the VP of original programming could speak to me. I’d never heard of this place.  But I looked it up, saw that it was real. 

Normally, I would forward a request like this to my agent.  But she’s in France.  So I sent the number and within moments the writer of the email called me.

The company is interested in my series of Lauren Laurano books.  He said she wanted to ask me some preliminary questions.  We set up a phone conversation for today at 11:30 am.

I don’t get excited about these things.  My friends do, if I tell them.  I’ve been at this juncture all too often.  It would be nice if this happened.  More than nice.  I’m sure it wouldn’t mean a lot of money, but I’d like to see that series on TV.  What writer wouldn’t?

I’ve always felt those characters would make a good series and would be different.  I knew the networks were out, but at one time I thought HBO might be interested.  They weren’t.

Now comes this nibble.  I hope she doesn’t ask me who I’d like to see play the main roles as I never cast a book in my head.

We’ll see.

Promises Promises

On the back of my galley for This Dame for Hire it states that there will be ads in The Strand Magazine, Mystery Scene and the NYTBR. None appeared. When I asked about it I got a bit of a runaround.

It’s too late for the magazines now as they publish 5 or 6 times a year. In fact, it’s too late for the NYTBR. I wouldn’t have expected an ad for the first book in a series, but I believed what the galley told me. Naive of me, I guess. You’d think I’d know better at this stage of my career.

One of the answers given me when I asked about it was, “The advertising department waits until there are reviews.” This excuse seems disingenuous, to say the least. What more did they want than a starred PW, a starred Library Journal and a good Booklist for starters?

Then I got print reviews from many places and they were all good. Call me crazy, but promising those ads to booksellers and then not delivering seems like lying to me. That’s who they’re aiming at when they print those words on the back of a galley.

Some things never change.

Quote

"I have written a great many stories and I still don't know how to go about it except to write it and take my chances."

John Steinbeck

I'm Back

I have to confess I’ve been back for a week.  But I was exhausted and didn’t want to post.

There have been some comments that asked me questions.

When will TDH be published? 

Next June or July.  Ballantine wants to publish the paperback of TDFH to coincide with the hardcover of TDH.  And I still have to deal with the copy-edited manuscript.

Will you have to do fresh background material for each book in the series?

Not really.  I plan to stay in 1943 for awhile.  Which means I might have to look up songs or movies, but not much more.

What’s next?  Do you wait till October to start your next book?

As I may have mentioned, I don’t have a contract for another book. When agent and editor get back in September I imagine negotiations will begin.  Or they won’t.  Perhaps Ballantine won’t be interested in another two book deal.  But maybe another publisher will.  I’d like to stay with Ballantine because I like my editor there very much.  Still, I’ll have to go with whoever wants me.  But that might turn out to be no one.

It’s hard to imagine that no one will be interested because of all the favorable feedback I’ve gotten.  The reviews have been great. But publishing is mysterious.  So who knows?

The answer to the October question is not possible now. I won’t start a book without a contract.  We’ll have to wait and see.

 

Leaving

I leave tomorrow for a week.  Not taking laptop.  Bye.

Finished

The edit is done.  As I expected, there was very little to do. I’ll mail it tomorrow.

Now I’m really free.  No contract.  I’m not worried.  I’ve been getting good reviews. I think Ballantine will want two more books.  But I don’t have to think about any of it.  It’s now in the hands of my agent.

I’m reading STRANGE BUT TRUE by John Searles.  So far I like it a great deal.

Tonight Yankees and Red Sox.  I can stay up.  Yes, I can.

 

It's Here

The manuscript has arrived.  I was out all day so I haven’t looked at it.  I’ve taken it out of the envelope that leaked the hideous gray stuff all over me and my floor, but I haven’t taken the rubber bands off the manuscript and I won’t do that until tomorrow.

I don’t feel great apprehension because I don’t expect to be asked to rewrite whole chapters or even great chunks of a chapter.  I think my editor would’ve indicated that if it was the case.

The really good news is that I received a check today which is the last payment for TDFH.  Except when the tons of royalties start rolling in.  Right. 

I do hate the thought of having to go to bed at 10 and up at 7 even if it’s only for a few days.  I’m so spoiled.

This and That and New Rules

Saturday I did a reading and a Q&A at the Westhampton Library in New York.  It was a gorgeous day and I didn’t expect much of a crowd as it’s a beach town.  But a lot of people attended.  Not that it was standing room only, but there were a respectable amount of people.  I hate doing these things, but once I’m into it I like it.  I wish I could remember that before hand. 

My editor called on Friday to say I’d have the edited manuscript back by Tuesday.  He also said there wasn’t much to do.  That was the case with the first book so I tend to believe him.  Still, I didn’t want to see that book so soon.  They do everything very fast at Ballantine.  I’m going away next week for about five or six days and then looking forward to a vacation in August.  By that I mean a vacation right here where I live.  But I bet the copy-edited manuscript will wing its way to me sometime in August.

I’m enjoying my freedom now,  and not looking forward to having to do anything with TOO DARN HOT.

The reviews in various newspapers and in online magazines are beginning. So far there was only one lousy one where the reviewer went on and on about Hammett and said that I didn’t measure up, and that my PI was no Sam Spade.  Really?  Why compare me with Hammett in this way?  I don’t understand that.

It didn’t bother me because I thought it was so stupid.  Bad reviews in newspapers or magazines, or blogs that I respect are a different animal.  That certainly can make me feel bad.

As I said in an earlier post, I don’t have a contract for future books in this series.  So at this moment I have no plans to start writing in the fall.  That may change if a contract is made with Ballantine, or some other publishing house.  I hope the latter doesn’t happen.  I don’t want to leave my editor.

One thing I didn’t have time to mention during the gruelling days of the final draft, is that Ballantine sent out a new style sheet to all authors.  I had to change my font and one couldn’t have two spaces between sentences (as most people my age were taught to do.)  So I had to think of that as I went through my revision.  And a CD had to accompany the final manuscript.  I use a computer and back up on a CD, but what about writers who still use a typewriter?  Or those who don’t have a CD drive. 

Call me crazy but I don’t like the feel of it.  I liked my font and I like two spaces between sentences.  But when I write the next book, if it’s for Ballantine, I’ll have to use a font I don’t like.  I know it doesn’t sound like much, and I suppose it isn’t, but it annoys me.  I’ve never thought of myself as part of the corporate world. What orders are going to come next?

 

 

From My Editor

Dear Sandra,

A quick note, post-lunch, to say that TOO DARN HOT is Too Darn Good.  And if I ever get free of these endless Group Meetings, I'll phone you to sing your praises.  Meanwhile, congrats on a great sequel!!!

Love,

Joe

Quote

"My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: when you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip."

Elmore Leonard