AuctionBytes and Blogging Heroes

If you're really into auctions, you are probably familiar with AuctionBytes. (If not, you should be.) AuctionBytes is the number one news and how-to site for those who are into online auctions. It features all sorts of news and helpful advice. There are how-to articles about selling strategies, features on popular collectibes, and a plethora of other useful material.

AuctionBytes is a partnership of David and Ina Steiner. Ina writes the AuctionBytes blog, and I interviewed her for Blogging Heros. You can read her comments on the book, plus see her interview in PDF format by clicking here.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com/

On the Road as a Writer

If you write about a popular subject or have a bestseller, people often invite you to give a talk to their group. Now and then you may be asked to speak on writing (just about my favorite subject), but usually your non-fiction book's subject or your novel's characters and plot are what people want to hear about.

This post is going to more local than not, as it has mostly to do with local speaking engagements. Lately, I seem to be giving a talk just about every four days. Two weeks ago I spoke to a large and enthusiastic inventors' group (about 80 people) at the Thomas Edison Museum in Fort Myers, Florida. In addition to Crosley, they wanted to hear about intellectual property rights--a subject I hope to address again sometime. Last week I was at the Green Twp. branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati Public Library, a large, modem facility with an avid history group. I had an attentive audience of 50 and for the first time tried out my slide show of Crosley photos--WLW, the Reds, Crosley radios, Crosley cars, etc. (Many thanks to Marya Hunt!)

Monday of this week I was scheduled to speak at Miami University's Art Museum, part of a Noon luncheon series put on by the Miami University Institute for Lifelong Learning. I was violently ill and had transportation problems late in the morning, and was 25 minutes late, I'm embarrassed to say. I really regret not getting to address the gorup of 100 or more. My sincere apologies to those who came to hear about Crosley.

Botanist Dr. Hardy Eshbauw stepped in for me, and presented an excellent program, the last half of which I was able to see and hear. Fortunately I was able to talk with some of my prospective audience, and met a lady in her 80s whose mother dated Powel Crosley, Jr., as well as an engineer who was quite knowledgable about Crosley's airplanes, so it wasn't a total loss.

This Saturday, I will be at the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati as a part of the "Books by the Banks" program (yes, nice of them to name it after me), where I'll get to do something I really enjoy: meet other writers. Click here to learn about the program; if you're in the Cincinnati area, maybe I'll see you there! (After Noon.) I'm particularly looking forward to this event because there will be over 80 other writers attending. I'm sure we'll all get in lots of networking and gossiping about publishers and writers who aren't there!

--Mike

http://www.michaelabanks.com/

Continuing Research and Slants

Once you write about a subject, you never stop learning about it unless you make a conscious effort. This is why I've found it easy to continue writing on some subjects for magazines. New information often seems to seek me out (as happens with CROSLEY), and there are always more research paths leading off those I've explored.

Although most books are not updated, new information is useful in writing magazine articles, and in fact often inspires articles. I've been able to write about Crosley, for example, in a number of special-interest publications because of research I've done since the Crosley biography came out. These include automotive, aviation, and engineering magazines. (Some of these I was writing for before I began writing the book.) For each article I had a different slant, focusing on Crosley airplanes, inventions, whatever was of interest to the magazines in question.

Note that I do not excerpt the book (although CROSLEY was excerpted in Cincinnati Magazine's March, 2007, issue). Simply recycling old information gets boring, which makes one's writing stale. Bringing in new information keeps things interesting, as does emphasizing certain information when you're slanting for an audience. Another subject from which I've gotten a lot of mileage is a replica of a 10th-Century Norman castle near where I live called Chateau Laroche. Chateau Laroche (also known as "the Loveland Castle") is one of those wacky projects that was the life's work of a single individual, a guy who began with a one-room shelter in 1929 and continued building until he had the enormous structure shown above. (It's located in Loveland, Ohio.)

I've sold 27 articles on the Loveland Castle over the years, always with photos, and always slanted for a certain audience. For a general-interest magazine I emphasized the builder's personality. For a home-builder's magazine I talked about the structure's unusual features. And 30 years after I wrote my first article on the castle, new information still turns up, inspiring me to write more articles. A little research now and then--perhaps looking into other one-man castles around the country, or reading about the architecture of the period this castle imitates--suggests slants, too. The same is true when I talk with people who have visited the castle; the reactions of several people to a subject often suggests a new direction or slant.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com/
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

"I've Got a Great Idea ..."

Let it be known that you're a writer and sooner or later someone will come to you and say, "I've got a great idea for a novel/nonfiction book. You write it and we'll split the money!"

Most of you will chuckle at that, because you know that coming up with an idea is easy. The hard part is doing something worthwhile with the idea. You have to determine who your audience is, and how you'll approach them. How much background will that audience need, and how can you deliver it? And then there's the real work of shaping and trimming your words into a viable manuscript. After which you edit and rewrite, then edit some more. The idea is the least part of it.

Still, there are folks who seem to think that all it takes is an idea, and that the rest is easy. The next time someone approaches you with the generous offer of allowing you to play them to use their idea, tell them that you can't listen to their idea because real writers collaborate only with published writers. Suggest that they read some how-to books on writing, and come back to you after they have published. I guarantee you won't hear anything more on the subject.

--Mike

http://www.michaelabanks.com/
Cropyright 2007, Michael A. Banks

Distributed Book Promotion

Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, was among the bloggers I interviewed for Blogging Heroes. In this post at his blog, Anderson notes several synergestic elements inherent to the book. First, in creating a book of interviews, I appealed to the ego of the participants--and thereby much of the content is in the "user-generated" category. (Not that it was a walk in the park to get the interviews together, as I've discussed here, here, and here.)

To promote the book, the publisher, John Wiley & Sons, provided each blogger with a PDF copy of the chapter in which she or he is interviewed--and permission to post the chapter. The bloggers are willing to promote the book by posting the chapters because they are promoting themselves at the same time. Chris makes the point that in giving away chunks of the book in this way, Wiley is "harnessing the combined distribution (and ego) of the prominent bloggers that are featured in the book." (Credit is due publisher Joe Wikert for most of this, by the way.)

Will the promotion work? Time will tell. I'll keep you posted with periodic updates here. Meanwhile, I hope you'll have a look at a chapter or two.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com/

A Real Masterpiece!

I believe I mentioned in an earlier post that I once wrote back-cover copy for paperback novels at a hundred bucks a shot. Having struggled to crank out evocative copy from a quick look at a manuscript, I've always considered it a cop-out when I see back-cover copy and front pages filled with nothing but quotes from reviewers and other authors--most of them excerpted from longer sentences. A few examples:

• "... a real masterpiece ..."
• "... a shining example of quality literature ..."
• "The best thing the author has ever written ..."

I often wonder what the cover-copy writers left out. I like to imagine the original quotes were something like these (excerpted lines in bold):

• "If this novel had been written by anyone else, it would have been a real masterpiece."
• "Anyone who calls this a shining example of quality literature is nuts!"
• "The best thing the author has ever written was a short story published in 1975. He hasn't turned out anything worthwhile since!"

Okay, that's funny! Less funny are the attempts to link a book by an unknown writer with work by a known writer. To me, it's like a fake promise, to the effect, "You'll like this as much as the other book." It's the same kind of pimping that goes on with films. "From the director of..." "Starring the lead from ...". The idea is to get you to go see or buy the film thinking it will be the same experience as the director or actors' previous film. That can never be. It's not the same story, not the same actors, not the same setting. But all that is a subject for another post.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com/
Copyright 2007, Michael A. Banks

Writing Blogging Heroes, Part 1 (Getting Started)

(Note: Want to sample Blogging Heroes? You can read the chapter with video-blogger Steve Garfield's interview at Steve's blog, http://offonatangent.blogspot.com/. Also, Chris Anderson has posted his interview: http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/10/a-free-chapter-.html)

Blogging Heroes is complete. I spent part of September going over the galleys and answering a few last-minute editorial and production questions. The cover looks good, and I assume the whole package will be sent to the printer any time now.

While we're waiting for copies, I'd like to talk about writing Blogging Heroes.

As a rule, projects that are simple in appearance turn out to have all sorts of complications. If you’ve ever built a deck or planned a cross-country trip, you know that. This book is a good example. Asking a bunch of bloggers questions about blogging, and putting the questions and answers into a book seems simple enough. But, as I knew going in, there was far more to it than that.

You can't go with bare Q and A. That's rarely attractive. More often than not, it’s boring—like reading a deposition. Interviews (one per chapter) require careful editing, to smooth out the hesitations, stutterings, repetitions, you know's, and the other little peculiarities of human speech that make transcriptions difficult to read. And each interview must read like a conversation. Chapters would need an introduction, with background about the blog and relevant biographical material on the blogger. I felt confident enough about that part (the last biography I wrote made The New York Times bestseller list).

Then there would be the Introduction, and various other front matter and back matter elements. (The publisher would find an indexer to create the Index. That was just as well; indexing is a specialized skill. Check out a book titled Indexing Books, by Nancy C. Mulvany, to see what I mean.)

That gave me the skeleton. I knew that the really difficult parts would come later, in the form of a seemingly endless series of complications, unforeseen events, and peculiar little problems that accompany the writing of just about any book.

This one would turn out to have some peculiar problems, indeed--largely because writing it depended on other people. The more people you add to anything, the greater the chances of things going wrong--or at least in unforeseeable directions. And I had several dozen people to deal with in writing this book.

Before I finished, I would feel like the guy who said, "It's hard to remember that you started out to drain the swamp when you're up to your knees in alligators!"
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com/

Blogging Heroes Sample Chapter: Mark Frauenfelder of BoingBoing.Net

If you would like to sample Blogging Heroes, click here to read Chapter 9, an interview/profile with Mark Frauenfelder, which Mark has posted at BoingBoing.net.
--Mike

Unexpected Effects of Books

I use eBay for research--buying books, magazines, and other items relevant to my writing subjects, after which I resell them (almost always at a loss or break-even point). I also wrote a book about using eBay successfully, titled The eBay Survival Guide. So I have spent hundreds of hours at the site and have become sensitive to the ebb and flow of certain kinds of merchandise.

In recent years I've been able to tie part of that ebb and flow to the appearance of books. For example, early in 2007 I saw a definite increase in the the number of Crosley items on eBay. That includes cars and auto-related items, appliances, radios, books, magazines, etc. The number dropped off by about 20 percent as 2007 closed.

The increase was probably due to the publication of CROSLEY: Two Brothers and a Business Empire that Transformed the Nation, which came out in November, 2006. The decrease was the result of the market having been largely satisfied by more Crosley-aware sellers putting more Crosley items up for sale.

There was also a price spike in the first half of 2007. But I observed a definite trend toward lower prices as the number of Crosley items offered fell. The Simplicity of Radio, by Powel Crosley, Jr., for example, now sells for a quarter of what it brought in a couple of years ago. The price decrease is most likely caused by the market-saturation phenomenon behind the drop in the number of Crosley items on eBay.

A couple years ago I watched another book, titled Barclay Toys, Transports & Cars, 1932-1971 bring hundreds of items to eBay--Barclay slush-mold toy cars and the like. The numbers for Barclay items are still up, and so are the prices, though not dramatically so.

I'll be following this phenomenon as other books on collectibles and history (including two of mine coming out in 2008) hit the market. This could lead to a new marketing strategy for eBayers: if you have a large collection of a specific kind of item, try to get a book for collectors on the market, to increase awareness and drive up demand. And if you're going to write a book on collectibles, or about a famous person or historical events, think about stocking up on related collectibles, so you can cash in after your book comes out.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com/

Feel Bad About Your Desk?

Have a look at mine. I don't know how I get anything done, either. Yours is probably far less cluttered, but if it's not, don't worry: I'm proof that one can get things done in this kind of environment.

--Mike

http://www.michaelabanks.com/

Fun with Telemarketers

Telemarketing from international call centers is annoying a lot of people. I say it's time we get something out of all the hassle. The next time you get a call from someone who has to struggle to pronounce your name, have some fun!

How? Well, you could offer an elocution lesson, something I've done. When you answer the phone and the guy on the other end asks for someone like "Deeblah" and you know they want to talk to Debra, stop 'em cold and say, "No. Hold up, man, you got it all wrong! Try this: say 'urr.'" Insist that they say it, then tell them, "Now, say "Deb-urr-ah." Bug 'em until they get it right or hang up.

Or you could pretend to be someone else, maybe a telephone repairman or a visiting relative. Once when I got a call from someone with a heavy accent asking for me, I announced, "No, I'm sorry. I'm his brother, Bob. I'm here fixing some plumbing problems, because he hates plumbing. You know that 3/8-inch soft copper water line? Yeah, once I came over and the idiot was laying on his back under the house trying to solder some of this pipe--in a snowstorm! I laughed my butt off and he got really mad at me ..."

If you know another language--other than one the caller probably speaks--you have another avenue for fun. Just say anything, like, "No hablo Inglis, pero comprendo poquito si tu habla mas despacio ..." Anything will do; just be sure to speak rapidly.

If enough of us do this, the clowns back here in the USA behind these campaigns may just give them up.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com/

Ghost-Writing the Work of a Favorite Author

As noted elsewhere, I've written several collaborative novels and non-fiction books. I also ghosted a book. The collaborative novels included The Odysseus Solution with Dean Lambe, and two with Mack Reynolds. Among the non-fiction titles were a word processing book and a telecom book written with Jerry Pournelle, Pournelle's PC Communications Bible. and, of cousre, CROSLEY.

My ghost-writing credit was the 1986 book Rogue Bolo, by Keith Laumer. I'll explain how I came to write the book, but first a few words about Laumer and his "Bolo" series. Rogue Bolo was one of a series of novels and story collections about immense, self-aware fighting machines--the descendents of today's tanks--that Laumer created back in the 1960s. (He was also noted for the creation of Jame Retief, interplanetary diplomat who was sort of a future James Bond with a sense of humor).

The typical Bolo story is told through viewpoints, including that of one or more Bolos. Much is put into showing how powerful and invulnerable these machines are. Bolos can ravage continents, and have a masterful knowledge of military strategy, tactics, and history. Scenes from war are few; many tales involve a Bolo awakening (or being awakened) from a completely powered-down state with minimal reserve power. The awakened Bolo is often missing part of its memory, and believes it is still in a battle zone or has been tricked by the enemy into thinking the war is over. It is ready for action, even though it may have been buried under tons of rock and dirt or set up as a monument after being deactivated. The trouble begins as soon as the Bolo awakens and decides it must take action. Sometimes the action is prompted by the memory loss, and sometimes by an outside stimulus that may or may not be an enemy from the past ...

I wrote this sort of by default. Laumer had had a series of incapacitating strokes, and publisher Jim Baen asked me if I knew the Bolo series, and did I think I could write like Laumer. I had of course been reading Laumer since the 1960s, and the Bolo series was one of my favorites. Baen had already scheduled the book, and it was obvious that Laumer would not recover in time to complete the manuscript on schedule.

Baen gave me the 20 or so pages of manuscript Laumer had completed, along with a partial outline, and I took it from there. My name would not appear on the cover, nor anywhere else in connection with the book; Laumer, Baen told me, would have gone berserk. Besides, because Bolos were Laumer trademark, my name on the cover would only have confused readers.

Luckily for me, Keith Laumer was a fairly straightforward writer with a competent workman-like approach to style. And I knew his work as well as I knew Heinlein or Clarke, having read it for years and years. I kept my collection of old Bolo stories close to hand to help me hew to Laumer's style, and whenever I was in doubt about how to write a scene I found something similar in an existing Bolo work to serve as a guide.

Laumer used a few unusual techniques in the Bolo series, but they were easy to analyze. There was a lot of viewpoint shifting, enough that a long tale might have 200 or more chapters, one for each viewpoint. This technique was also used to drop in background that would have required a lot of gratuitious narrative; instead of having a character explain matters, or writing a lengthy backstory, Laumer would drop in a news story excerpt, a few lines from an interview, someone's military report, a scene with a couple of walk-ons, whatever--and that would be a chapter. With the current story narrative (including dialogue) strung among these background chapter-ettes, the story grew step by small step.

The Bolos themselves were the point and carried the story, but at least one other major character (normally human) was part of the tale. Recurring bit-part characters like Georgius Imperator and Lord Margrave filled in background and at times moved the story along. The result might be light-hearted or sentimental, but it was always fun.

When I first read Laumer's work in my teens, I would have laughed at the thought that I might some day be writing under Laumer's name; it's just not the kind of thing one thinks about. I like to think that I wrote it as Laumer would have (he passed away not long after the book came out). Save for a few personalizations--names of people I know for characters, for example--the book stands in the tradition of Keith Laumer.

--Mike

http://www.michaelabanks.com/

Copyright � 2007, Michael A. Banks

October, November, and December Speaking Engagements

For those who may be interested, I have these speaking engagements coming up in October, November, and December:

• Monday, October 29, 2007, Miami University Institute for Lifelong Learning, Oxford, Ohio, Noon. Contact: (513) 529-8600.
• Saturday, November 3, 2007, Books By the Banks, an event featuring Ohio Writers held at the Duke Energy Center (Level 2, South), 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM.
• Sunday, November 11, 2007, Ohioana Library Assocation, Cincinnati Public Library, 1:30 PM.
• Saturday & Sunday, December 1 & 2, at the Crosley Mansion in Sarasota, Florida (next to the Ringling Museum), I'll be talking about Crosley and signing copies of Crosley. A couple dozen Crosley automobiles, along with other Crosley artifacts, will be on display.

At each talk, I'll be sharing new facts and stories about Crosley autos, radios, the Crosleys themselves, and more. I'm bringing a number of Crosley artifacts from my collection to each program. Here's the tentative lineup for 2008:

• In April, 2008, I will be giving a talk at the Cincinnati Old Time Radio Convention.
• May 2-4, 2008, I'm doing a Crosley presentation at the Early Television Convention, in Hilliard, Ohio.
• June 6 & 7, 2008 I am the keynote speaker at the Mid-Atlantic Antique Radio Club's annual gathering (this is a large regional organization). Unless something else gets in the way, I hope to be at the Crosley Automobile Club's annual meet in July. More to come.
  In the meantime, listen for me on WLW.

--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com/

Tuesday, October 23, 2007, Green Township Branch Cincinnati Public Library, Cincinnati, 7:00 PM. Tom Miller will be there with his 1948 Crosley Station Wagon! (No charge. Call 369-6095 to register.)

Fort Myers, Florida: Edison Inventors' Group

Thanks to everyone who came out for the meeting of the Edison Inventors Group at the Thomas Edison Museum in Fort Myers, Florida, last Wednesday, October 17. This is an impresive group, with over 80 members at that meeting. They're a real hands-on organization, with lots of experts willing to educate and train others. Anyone in the area who is an inventor or wants to be an inventor should join.
For a map, contacts and additional information, click here. Or call (239)-275-IDEA (4332).

--Mike

The Gillette Printer?

I’m still on the road and currently visiting relatives who have some photos I need to scan. I have my laptop computer with me, but had to reason to bring a printer. These folks have no computer equipment, so I went shopping for a scanner. I looked at flatbed scanners, but the cheapest one cost twice as much as a low-end color printer/scanner/copier combo. After seeing what was available at a local Circuit City, I picked up a Lexmark X2500 at Wal-Mart for $46.97 plus tax. I might have bought a Hewlett-Packard, but none of their equipment is Windows Vista certified, so the brand choice was in part made for me, by Microsoft.

Interestingly, the printer came with everything except the black ink cartridge. The color cartridge was supplied, but a note on the box stated, "Black cartridge sold separately." This reminds me of the King C. Gillette marketing trick of selling shavers at little or no profit in order to create a repeat market for profitable double-edge razor blades. (If you check, you’ll find that the shavers weren’t all that inexpensive, but they did create a market.) The cartridge cost $17.97, so in reality I paid about $66 for the printer/scanner.

This is the first time I’ve encountered this situation, though I have seen printers sold without cables--sort of a variation on the "monitor sold separately" gag. Is Lexmark selling printers cheap, giving retailers the lion’s share of the profit in order to make money on ink cartridges? No doubt they’re making money on the carts at the selling price, and it may well be that, as with other Lexmark printers I’ve owned, they won’t last as long as the carts for the HP printer I have at home. Time will tell. At least I’ll have an emergency backup on hand when the HP gives out. Plus, the X2500 really is small enough to be called portable. Maybe I’ll pack it next time I travel by car, just to have it available.
(Update, Oct. 22: I've since read reviews that say this printer really eats up cartridges. Still, the price is worth it to get a portable copier and scanner--cheap.)
--Mike

Finding Myself at a Yard Sale

It’s always fun to come across a rare item in a junk shop or yard sale. There was a time when I spent quite a few summer Saturdays cruising to find yard sales. But after a while it seemed that I was hitting a dozen or more yard sales to find one good item, and I backed off. I still swing by yard sales when I’m traveling, though. The lure of new hunting grounds is hard to resist.

Traveling in Florida today, I stopped by a church yard sale where I found some old computer equipment, among it some original Tandy DeskMate 3 software. As I looked through the box containing the items I spotted a familiar book: Getting the Most Out of DeskMate 3, a book I wrote in 1989.

DeskMate was then a contender in the PC multi-tasking software arena, but Windows 3 was close to winning the field. In the few months before DeskMate was overwhelmed by Windows, though, my book sold over 62,000 copies.

Spotting the book in the bottom of the box of old computer junk was a kick, just like the first time I saw one of my novels in a used bookstore, and later on eBay. It brought back some pleasant memories, and I was happy to pay three bucks for the book (even though I have several copies) along with the original DeskMate 3 disks and the scant documentation that came with them (I’d lost those over the years).

More than finding something I had forgotten I’d lost, the discovery was something of an affirmation of my career—proof that my work had reached across the country and helped new computerists master their machines. It was every bit as gratifying as seeing copies of my books in Indonesian, Italian, and Japanese, or learning that pirated copies of a couple of my titles exist in Russia and China.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

Do Writers Get Vacations?

Everyone needs a vacation now and then. Writers who are employed (newspaper reporters, magazine staffers, technical writers, etc.) can take vacations and just stop working. However, self-employed writers tend to be "at work" all the time. This is because much of the creative process takes place inside our heads and doesn't require equipment or supplies.

Some of us are accustomed to working and find it difficult to stop. (Hm ... sometime I'll write a post about "worth ethics.") You get that way either because events have taught you that not working may be followed by a serious shortage of money, or because it's too tempting to leave the big money in front of you. Either way, you just keep on working.

I know writers caught up in those patterns. It's easy to do. For my part, I'm sitting in Florida right now, a thousand miles from my home, and I haven't done any writing other than blog postings for over a week.

Am I losing money? Perhaps. But in the long run I'll be ahead, financially and otherwise, because of this time off. Whether you write full- or part-time, you need to take that vacation. Just let it all go and and recharge.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com/

Was I Expecting Too Much?

I've been traveling and haven't posted for several days. After spending a few days in North Carolina, I'm now in a mid-sized Florida city. I spent part of yesterday at the local library. I'm not new to the city, but it has been several years since my last visit, so I missed a turn on my way from my hosts' home to the library.

When I realized I was lost, I circled a block and found myself next to the city newspaper's multi-story building. I pulled over and walked into the newspaper's lobby, confident that I would get quick directions.

It was a large lobby, with five people at work doing whatever it was they were doing. A woman approached me from behind a counter. "May I help you?" she asked.

"Hello," I said. "Where is the public library?"

"I don't know," she replied. She turned to the others. "Does anyone know where the library is?"

Three of the others shook their heads. Only one guy out the five knew where the library was. "Go two blocks that way, turn left, and you'll see it."

The directions were perfect. But I was more than a little surprised that only 20 percent of the employees (that group, anyway) at the newspaper were informed enough to know the location of this major landmark. Was I expecting too much, thinking that anyone working for a newspaper would know the location of a public building three blocks away?
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com

Crosley Program in Fort Myers, Florida, October 17

(Note: in an earlier post I listed this a week early. The meeting is on the 17th.)
For any who may be in the area, I'll be speaking at a meeting of the Edison Inventors Group at the Thomas Edison Museum in Fort Myers, Florida, Wednesday October 17.

I'll be speaking about Powel Crosley, Jr. as an inventor and entreprenur. The meeting begins at 7:00 PM. For a map, contacts and additional information, click here. Or call (239)-275-IDEA (4332).

--Mike

http://www.michaelabanks.com/

When Completing a Book Depends on Someone Else

As noted a few posts back, Blogging Heroes is complete, as far as I know. I spent part of September going over the galleys and answering a few last-minute editorial and production questions. The cover looks good, and I assume the whole package will be sent to the printer any time now.
While we're waiting for copies, I'd like to talk about writing the book.

As a rule, projects that are simple in appearance turn out to have all sorts of complications. If you’ve ever built a deck or planned a cross-country trip, you know that. So it was with this book. Asking a bunch of bloggers questions about blogging, and putting the questions and answers into a book seems simple enough. But, as I knew going in, there would be far more to it than that.

For one thing, the interviews would have to be edited, reviewed by the subjects, and edited again. You can't go with straight transcription in a book--it ends up reading a deposition, like the Warren Commission's report. You have to smooth out the hesitations, stutterings, repetitions, you know's, and al the other little peculiarities of human speech that don't translate well to print. Each interview should be conducted like a conversation, and be written to read like a conversation--while retaining the original meaning of the interview subjects' words.

Beyond that, the chapters would need an introduction, with background about the blog and relevant biographical material on the blogger. I felt confident enough about that part (the last biography I wrote made The New York Times bestseller list). Then there would be a Preface and Introduction to write, plus various other front matter and back matter elements. (The publisher would find an indexer to create the Index. That was just as well; indexing is a specialized skill. Check out a book titled Indexing Books, by Nancy C. Mulvany, to see what I mean.)

That gave me the skeleton. I knew that the really difficult parts would come later, in the form of a seemingly endless series of complications, unforeseen events, and peculiar little problems that accompany the writing of just about any book.

This one would turn out to have some peculiar problems, indeed--largely because writing it depended on other people. The more people you add to anything, the greater the chances of things going wrong--or at least in unforeseeable directions. And I had several dozen people to deal with in writing this book. (I should note that the editors didn't generate problems; they're always a factor in writing a book, and they are there to help solve problems.) Equipment problems figured in the mix, too.

Before I finished writng the book, I would feel a lot like the guy who said, "It's hard to remember that you started out to drain the swamp when you're up to your ass in alligators!"

Stay tuned for more.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com/