Writing Blogs and Books

I've been talking with a number of well-known bloggers in connection with a project I'm doing, and I've noticed that there are two bits of advice that they all offer to other bloggers. And they definitely apply to writing books--which should be of no surprise, since several blogs have become books, and at least three books I know of are going to become blogs.

The first bit of advice is that you ought to blog about something for which you have enthusiasm. The other is to avoid imitating others--in content as well as in style.

I feel like I'm always telling would-be writers these things. If you write about something you're interested in (and enthusiastic about) you don't have to do as much research, and the enthusiasm will show in your writing. It seems obvious, but some people miss it when they try to write a book or a blog because it's a "hot topic" and will probably make money. If it's that hot, 9,000 other people have already thought of it. (Of course, if you need the money and someone asks you to write a training manual for a UNIX system admin and you really need the money, this rule is suspended.)

If you try to imitate another writer, you'll usually end up reading like an imitation of that writer. Follow too closely when it comes to content, and you might find yourself plagiarizing--something that happens a lot more often with blogs than books. I think m ore people get caught up in this than write books about stuff they're have no interest in. Most writers are dissatisfied with their writing styles early in their careers, and long to be able to write as well as (insert name of favorite writer here).

The problem with imitating another writer because you don't like your own style is that you almost always end up looking like an imitation of that writer--or worse. That's most likely because you don't know enough about writing to be able to analyze the style of the writer in question. If you did, you wouldn't be worrying about your style; you'd already be there! So, work on your style. (Tip: Instead of trying to write like so-and-so, try rewriting one of her paragraphs in your own style. You'll probably learn something about your stylistic weaknesses, and the strengths of the other writer!)
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com/
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

Recreational Writing and Data-Gathering Pranks

Being creative, writers often find their recreation in creative ways. On occasion some of us have so much creativity (or madness or frustration) bubbling away in our brains that we just have to let it out. The result is recreational writing, a few examples of which you'll find on this blog. (See the original version of the Beatles' "Rain" and the origin of Web 2.0 and my history of the Internet.)

On occasion these bits are published. For example, I’ve sold several bogus advertisements to radio and magazines. Among were a one-minute spot for the Famous Barbarians' Correspondence School, and a pitch for the Ultimate Personal Computer (the human brain and body described in computer terms. That one first appeared in ANALOG Science Fiction Magazine, and was reprinted in the United States Air Force Cryptologic Command Newsletter and elsewhere.) These, and oddities like "What Do I Do if I Get a Phone Call from Mars?" were written during idle periods when I felt this great urge to do something.

But sometimes words aren't enough. Then it's time for action. When I reach that point, I look for interesting pranks that serve a purpose. One of my favorite is an ongoing study of public honesty I've been conducting for about a year now.

The venue is the local Post Office. The study involves dropping bank envelopes that appear to be packed with cash, then observing to see what people do when they find the envelopes. I print, "Cash for money orders" boldly on the outside of each envelope. The envelopes are stuffed with bank deposit slips for realism, and each includes a special note intended for the dishonest types (details on that in a few lines).

The procedure is to drop an envelope between myself and the counter while I'm talking to a clerk. (The clerk helps with observing the subjects.) Then--if there aren't many people present--I walk away and watch from the outer lobby or through the windows in front of the building. If there's a crowd, I leave the watching to the clerk, lest I tip off the subjects of the study.

The results are probably what you think: out of 12 test-drops, 5 people have handed the envelope over to the clerk, while 6 have kept the money--surreptitiously dipping and retrieving the envelope, then sliding it into purse or pocket.

One subject surprised us. A student at the local college (Miami University), he swooped down on the envelope as he approached the clerk, opened it and pulled out the contents in front of the waiting line of postal customers. Then he opened the envelope, glanced at the dummy paper inside, and laughed, "Hey! Someone's having a joke--cool!"

The note inside, printed on more than one ticket so the dishonest subject is sure to see it, reads: "You thought you'd get away with someone else's cash. So did all the people who watched you pick up this envelope."

Never have learned how the dishonest types reacted on learning that they'd been scammed.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com/
Copyight © 2007, Michael A. Banks

Can't We All Just Tell the Truth?

Just when I thought we were done with the whole sell-a-bad-novel-as-a-true-story thing (ala A Million Little Pieces), another autobiographical tome that wasn't quite what it said it was is back in the news. It had already been established that J.T. Leroy, author of Sarah, the autobiographical story of an underage male prostitute, doesn't exist. The real author, a woman of legal age named Laura Albert, had sold the rights to a film company, and when the truth came out the film company sued. A jury found in favor of the film company on June 22.

You can find the full details at any news site. What I'm interested in here is not so much who told which lies for how much, or whether the author believes the non-existent Leroy exists, but how the reading public responds. I expect the sales of J.T. Leroy books to climb, just like the sales of A Million Little Pieces did after it was revealed that its author had scammed Oprah.

Maybe she'll be a guest on Oprah's show and explain the whole thing. Whether or not that happens, the gullible American public will doubtless be buying her books in the usual knee spasmodic response to national publicity.

Hey, media types: as long as you're guiding the public around by its nose, how about publicizing some worthwhile books? There are lots of those with scandals attached ... but who needs scandals when you have a good read?
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com

Big Claims for E-Books, and the Economics of Print Publishing

I just read some interesting claims by the author of an E-book on search-engine optimization. This SEO maven claims to be selling around 4,000 copies per year—at $79 a pop. In addition, the author informs us that publishers have been offering deals to publish the book, it’s such a winner.

Skeptic that I am, I have my doubts about the sales claim. I don’t think the E-book business is mature enough to spin off that kind of money from a book on a worn-out topic by an unestablished writer. But I suppose it could be true. After all, everyone knows that the Internet is the absolute the place to go if you want to make forty-seven million dollars in three days while sitting in your hot tub after you lost your job, went deep into debt, and watched your family slowly starve. And this author might one of those select few who have the secret to Internet wealth, and has broken the Money for Nothing Code of Silence. Lots of people would be willing to blow $79 on the chance that the E-book will deliver on its promises. You spend more than that on a chance to win a $30,000 car in a charity raffle. All that has to happen is for enough of the right kind of people to stumble across the Web site, and the author might be making several hundred grand per year. (Of course, there are tens of thousands of other Web sites trying to sell those millionaire raffle tickets, so getting 4,000 customers a year might prove difficult.)

Regardless of how likely that is to happen, I have more serious doubts over the claim about print publishers tripping over themselves to buy the book.

Even if the author provided absolute, unequivocal proof of selling 4,000 copies per year at $79 and grossing $300,000, I don’t believe a print publisher would spring for it. There are too many SEO books out there already. And there’s just not enough money to make a publisher interested.

How can I say that? Because the book is very unlikely to sell 4,000 copies, and it definitely wouldn’t sell for $79.

Hard to believe? I’ll explain the second statement first. Except where textbooks and professional references are involved (and I mean real professions, like medicine and law), readers are accustomed to certain price caps. A bookstore browser would expect the big trade paperback that such an SEO book would be to cost $30 or less. If she picked it up and saw a $79 price tag, she’d probably think, “This is a book. I know what books cost. Big paperback books like this go for less than thirty bucks!” and go on to something else.

Some optimists would look past the price and flip through the book, hopes still high. And they would be dissuaded from buying it because it doesn’t look like something they can use to make ten bucks, let alone millions. Not something they’d bet $79 on, anyway. (That kind of price works on the Internet because you don’t get to see what you’re really buying, and you can sustain your million-dollar fantasy long enough to buy. And few print books make the kind of outrageous promises that Web sites make to convince someone to buy into a fantasy.)

So, maybe the book would sell for $25.

Now, let’s set up a scenario where the book sells 4,000 copies. Wouldn’t that be enough money to interest a publisher? Probably not. Maybe they do a 5,000-copy print run of a trade paperback, typical run for an unproven book by an unproven author. Publishers know they can always print more if the need arises. At a cost of three bucks per copy the total expense is $15K. Add another $10K author advance. That $10K maximum because the author in this instance would be regarded as a midlist author, if not a new writer altogether. There’s a little overhead in there (editorial and promotion and warehousing), so say the publisher has $30K invested to produce the book and print 5,000 copies.

So 4,000 copies sell—and that’s a generous sell-through, equal to the number of customers the aforementioned E-book author claims to have found already. The publisher’s net is going to be around $50,000. Subtract the author advance and production costs, and the publisher makes $20,000. (And the author has failed to earn out his advance.)

But there’s no guarantee that the book will sell that many copies. Like a lot of other books, this one will hit the market with the expectation that it will sell about half the print run and break even. There would probably be very little promotion or advertising; when publishers advertise, they tend to put money into proven authors and books. A new author’s work has to prove itself. Once an author and book start bringing in big orders with a high sell-through rate, then the publisher will get behind the book.

And it’s unlikely to sell another 4,000 copies, since the market has already been tapped, the topic is old, and the book will soon be outdated. Any publisher will choose invest in a book that has a better chance of earning more than $20,000 for the same investment.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com/
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

Blogging and Honesty

“Blogging allows us writers to state our biases and admit them, thus bringing more honesty to the things we write.”
--Mary Jo Foley
All About Microsoft

With Apologies to Lennon & McCartney ...

It is a little-known fact that the Beatles song "Rain" was based on a song written by Paul McCartney's sheepdog, Martha. In commemoration of Martha, who shared Paul's birth-date (June 18), here are Martha's original lyrics, later incorporated into "Rain" by Paul:
---
If the rain comes,
dogs run and hide their heads,
from the booming they all dread,
If the rain comes, if the rain comes.

When the sun shines,
they romp on the green grass
and gen'rally have a blast.
When the sun shines, when the sun shines.

Ra-a-a-a-i-n
I'll go hide.
Shi-i-i-i-i-ine
the weather's fine.

I can show you
that when it starts to rain
the carpet I will stain.
I can show you, I can show you.

(Chorus)

Can you hear me,
that when it rains and shines
it really blows my mind.
Can you hear me, can you hear me?

(Chorus, fade w/backward lyics)

--Mike
http://www.michaelbanks.com
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

On Syllables ...

Polysyllabic is.
Monosyllabic isn’t.

Leveraging Paradigms with Jargon

(Or should that be Leveraging Jargon with Paradigms?)
-------------
I've written several essays making fun of the overuse of jargon--especially in business communications. It's gotten to the point where you can write a sentence like "Leverage my profit with a new paradigm," change the words 'round in any order, and still be accepted. Try it! "Profit my paradigm with a new leverage," and "Paradigm a new leverage with my profit" make about as much sense as, say, "Increase my income with a new pattern."

Rather like the Emperor's new clothes, overall.

I'm not satisfied with any of my essays, but Dick Margulis points us to the best commentary on businessspeak I've yet seen. Check out this post.

Not incidentally, I think "paradigm" should be pronounced "pair-a-dij-em." Part of the magic of jargon is having words that are not pronounced as they look (with the occasional smatteering of foreign terms).
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com

Google: A Prank with a Point

If you have an opinion on Google Book Search--or if you're still trying to form one--have a look at this post at Richard Charkin's blog. Richard is Chief Executive at Macmillan publishing. Last week he was at the BEA (Book Expo America), where he pulled a prank with a point on Google Book Search. It's self-explanatory, and hilarious!
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com

Speaking with Johnny Bench

Photo by Janet Tittle
One of the more fun things about being a writer is that you get invited to interesting events. I recently had the honor of speaking at a charity event with Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench.

The event was "Step Up to the Plate" that supports the Center for Children and Families in Cincinnati. The venue was Great American Ball Park. It was a perfect Spring day, sunny and mild--a great day for a ball game. (The Reds were in San Diego, where they beat the Padres 2 to 1.)

I gave a talk on the Crosleys at the Reds Hall of Fame Museum. (For those who don't know, Powel Crosley, Jr. owned the Cincinnati Reds from 1934 until his death in 1961, and the Reds' home park was Crosley Field from 1935 until 1970.)

The event was one of the most enjoyable of the many signings and talks I've done in connection with the Crosley book. Following my address, Bench gave an inspiring talk in support of the charity, standing near his old spot behind home plate.

As a bonus, attendees had the opportunity to hit some balls from home plate--pitched the Reds' batting practice pitcher. (Home plate is just behind Bench and me in the accompanying photo. There was a long line of batters off to the right.) A fine dinner and silent auction followed.

I'd not met Johnny Bench before this. He's a quiet, unassuming guy, and in pretty good shape, just a bit heavier than I remember him from the days of "the Big Red Machine."

And yeah, shaking hands with Johnny Bench is like shaking hands with a catcher's mitt!

--Mike

http://www.michaelabanks.com

Photo © 2007 Janet Tittle

Books on the Business of Writing

This is the fourth in a series of posts in which I recommend books for aspiring and published writers. Each post covers a category, including biographies/autobiographies, magazine writing, how-to-write books by notable writers, fiction how-to, and more.

These books address the business aspects of writing and publishing.

• Mastering the Business of Writing, by Richard Curtis (Allworth Press, 1996)
  This Business of Publishing: An Insider's View of Current Trends and Tactics, by Richard Curtis (Watson-Guptill, 1998)
• Magazine Publishing Industry, by Charles P. Daly, Patrick Henry, and Ellen Ryder (Allyn & Bacon, 1996)
• Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future by Jason Epstein
• The Book Publishing Industry, by Albert N. Greco (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003) Every Writer's Guide to Copyright and Publishing Law, by Ellen M. Kozak (Owl Books, 2004)
• Another Life: A Memoir of Other People, by Michael Korda (Random House, 1999)

You can find most of these books at your local bookstore or at Amazon.com or other online retailers. For a few of the out-of-print titles you will have to go to eBay or a used book store.

(For additional recommendations, see this list at Amazon.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com

Books About Agenting, Contracts, and Related Topics

This is the third in a series of posts in which I recommend books for aspiring and published writers. Each post covers a category, including biographies/autobiographies, magazine writing, how-to-write books by notable writers, books on the business aspects of writing, fiction how-to, and more.

These books cover agenting, contracts, and related matters. They are a must if you don't use an agent, and worth reading even if you do.

How to Be Your Own Literary Agent: The Business of Getting a Book Published, Revised edition, by Richard Curtis (Houghton-Mifflin, 2003)
Be Your Own Literary Agent: The Ultimate Insider's Guide to Getting Published, Third edition, by Martin P. Levin (Ten Speed Press, 2002)
The Career Novelist: A Literary Agent Offers Strategies for Success, by Donald Maass (Heineman, 1996)

You can find most of these books at your local bookstore or at Amazon.com or other online retailers. For a few of the out-of-print titles you will have to go to eBay or a used book store.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com

Books About Magazine Writing

This is the second in a series of posts in which I recommend books for aspiring and published writers. Each post covers a category, including biographies/autobiographies, how-to-write books by notable writers, books on the business aspects of writing, fiction how-to, and more.

Interested in writing for magazines? Check out the books on this list.

• Starting Your Career as a Freelance Writer, by Moira Anderson Allen (Allworth Press, 2003)
• The Art and Craft of Feature Writing, by William E. Blundell (Plume, 1988)
  Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Magazine Articles, by Sheree Bykofsky (Alpha, 2000)
• Associated Press Guide to Newswriting: The Resource for Professional Journalists by Cappon
• You can Write for Magazines, by Greg Daugherty (Writer's Digest Books, 1999)
• Writer's Digest Guide to Magazine Article Writing, Edited by J. Fredette (Writer's Digest Books, 1990)
• The Magazine Article: How to Think It, Plan It, Write It, by Peter Jacobi (Indiana University Press, 1997)
• Start and Run a Copywriting Business, by Steve Slaunwhite (Self-Counsel Press, 2005)
• How to Write Articles for Newspapers & Magazines, by Dawn B. Sova (Arco, 2002)
• The AdWeek Copywriting Handbook, by Joseph Sugarman (Wiley, 2006)
• Writing for Magazines: A Beginner's Guide, by Cheryl Sloan Wray (McGraw-Hill, 2004)

You can find most of these books at your local bookstore or at Amazon.com or other online retailers. For a few of the out-of-print titles you will have to go to eBay or a used book store.
--Mike

Biographies for Writers

This is the first in a series of posts in which I recommend books for aspiring and published writers. Each post covers a category, including magazine writing, how-to-write books by notable writers, books on the business aspects of writing, fiction how-to, and more.

The books listed in this post are biographies or autobiographies, and as such do not focus on writing and getting published. However, the authors offer writing advice now and then, and there is much to be learned from the experiences they relate.

You can find most of these books at your local bookstore or at Amazon.com or other online retailers. For a few of the out-of-print titles you will have to go to eBay or a used book store. (The list is alphabetical, by subject.)

Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams, by M.J. Simpson (Justin, Charles & Co.,
June 2005)

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King (Scribner, 2002)

Another Life: A Memoir of Other People, by Michael Korda (Random House, 1999)

Education of a Wandering Man, by Louis L'Amour (Bantam Books, 1990 Reissue)

The Way the Future Was, by Frederik Pohl (Del Rey Books, 1978)

Tomorrow's Child, by Jack Williamson (Benbella Books, 2005)

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

Procrastinating Writers

I recently had conversations with several editors about writers who don't deliver on time (something that every new editor quickly learns is not uncommon). Most writers who deliver late are just plain procrastinators. They put off starting on books for weeks and even months. Some have to be forced into writing by nagging editors and agents, or by the need of money. One such was Harold Robbins, who is described in Another Life by Michael Korda as having to be watched over (on occasion, under literal lock and key) before he would finish a novel.

But what is procrastination? In this case it is a quick catch-all that covers several reasons for writers being late.

(Note: Now and then, writers are kept from writing by circumstances beyond their control, definitely not procrastination. Family problems, health issues, and bizarre things that no one would buy as fiction. I recall being really late with a book after being hit by a divorce and an auto accident within weeks of one another.)

So why do writers (like the aforementioned Harold Robbins) who are given plenty of time to write their books, and don't have any life emergencies between signing the contract and the manuscript delivery date, run late? Some writers get too comfortable; they have money, and there's loads and loads of time before the book is due, so why not take a few days (weeks, or months) off and enjoy it? At some point they realize that the deadline is on the horizon, and panic--which slows down writerly production something fierce. (Just about any emotion can slow production--fear, joy, hate, terror. Everything but love, in my experience. Love has been known to actually speed up writing!)

And then there are writers who are seized by fear as they get into their project--fear of being unable to complete it, fear of rejection, fear of not doing their best. This usually happens to first-time writers, but pros are not immune to the problem. A sudden change in the relationship between the editor or publisher and the author can make for delays--egos and attitudes, that sort of thing. Writers have also been known to slow down or stop working when advance checks don't arrive on schedule.

And there's that mysterious malady, Writer's Block.

How to deal with this? Editors cope by harassing the writer--a surprisingly effective tactic. Some beg, some manipulate, and some threaten. (They may threaten to bring in another writer as permitted in the author's contract.) All's fair in the battle to bring in the manuscript on deadline.

And how do writes handle the situation? Many are in denial, so they do nothing but give in to pressure or threats, not a good working situation. Others will come up with all sorts of situations on which to place the blame for their tardiness, and still crank out a good manuscript really quickly.

The minority of writers who admit to themselves that they've been procrastinating just dig in and crank out quality chapters in impossibly short periods of time (I've been known to do that). And some produce really bad prose because they're trying to cram 6 months worth of work into 2 months. (Yet another reason why bad books get into print.)

Of course, it's best to avoid the situation entirely.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com
Copyright 2007, Michael A. Banks

More Book Billboard Action

As noted in a posting some time back, one of the things that helped the Crosley book make it to the bestseller lists was advertising. In addition to advertising on radio and television, a lot of billboards advertising the book were put up in the Cincinnati area.

One is back--a big one on I-75 South, just as you cross the Ohio River from Cincinnati. You can see it here. The bottom lists the national bestseller lists the book has made.

Can this do the same for other books? Possibly. Would Crosley have sold as well without the billboards? Nearly. My own work in publicizing the book--both regionally and nationally--was a critical factor in its success. As with several of my earlier books (including one that sold 192,000 copies), I am promoting the book in several ways.

How? Captializing on Crosley's regional appeal, I've done radio and television appearances, as well as newspaper interviews. And I'm writing original articles (not excerpts) for general- and special-interest magazines. The articles I write serve as a sample of the book's content, and serve to draw readers to the book. They're attractive to editors, too, because each contains information that's not in the book, and each is written for a specific audience. I turn these out quickly, and I get paid for them, so everyone wins. I also make contacts--with trade journals, newspapers, and other publications that are located in cities tied to the book, or which have to do with themes in the book (radio broadcasting, aviation, etc.) These contacts often turn into reviews, or even features about the book's content that whet readers' appetites for more. And a few yield writing assignments. I also speak before groups (which pays well) such as historical societies and get in other kinds of promotion as I can.

These techniques are best used with non-fiction books, but most can be adapted to novels.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com

The Origin of Web 2.0

Because writing is my livelihood, writer's block is unacceptable to me. I have a number of techniques for getting unblocked, one of which is turning to creative writing (something more creative than what has me blocked). The scenario below is the result of a recent block. (Yes, I know the conventional origin story.)
----
The Birth of Web 2.0
(or, The Emperor's New Clothes)

One quiet day in a conventionally unconventional, smoke-free, politically correct, ISO-9000-compliant Southern California office ...

"Hey, Sanjay, you know how we've always had different versions of things, like 'Windows 3" and "WordStar 4.0?'"

"Yes?"

"Well, why can't there be a 'Web 2.0?"

"Why should there be a Web 2.0, Jason?"

"Because it sounds cool, and nobody else has said it. If we talk about it first, people will think we're cool!"

"Yes. I like it! It'll be a new pair of dimes! It'll be--" He stopped and scratched his head. "Uh, what will it be?

Jason laughed--a donkey-like braying sound. "Heck, it doesn't have to be anything, Sanjay! I mean, think about it: Web 2.0 is such a cool term that it stands on its own! All we need to do is use it in a few conversations with the right people, and on the Web site, get people talking. Nobody will ask what it means for fear people will think they're not with it!"

Sanjay nodded. "You are right, Jason. People will make up their own definitions, and we will pick the one we like best!"

"Yes! Yes!" Jason brayed again. "The ultimate example of 'user-generated content,' and nobody will have a clue!"

--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

Advertising: Protection Against Bad Reviews?

Last week, in a posting titled Can A Review Be TOO Good? I described an incident in which I was asked to give a product a bad review because its publisher had cancelled some of its advertising in the magazine in question. I also addressed favoritism to advertisers in magazine reviews.

This week I read about Harry McCracken, Editor of PC World, resigning apparently because the publisher was reluctant to publish material critical of a major advertiser.

As I've noted elsewhere, the concept of, "Pay us [advertise] and we'll sing your product's praises; don't pay and we'll bury it," is too close to payola for comfort. Incidents of this kind also erode reader confidence in reviews.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com
Addenda: McCracken has returned to the helm of PC World.
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

Can a Review be TOO Good?

During the 1980s I wrote scores of book and software reviews, both standalone and in conjunction with magazine columns. For the most part I had positive things to say about what I reviewed because the products I was reviewing were good.

Only once was one of my reviews questioned. A week after I turned in a particularly glowing review of a game from a small publisher to one of the major computer magazines. the magazine’s editor phoned to ask whether the game was really that good.

“Yes, it is.” I told her.

“Do you mean you can’t say anything bad about it? Isn’t there anything wrong with the game?”

I thought about it. Why would she be asking this? Was my praise over the top? No. I knew it wasn't.

“No" I replied. "It really is that good! The game has a great plot. The artwork is excellent. Even the manual is good.”

“You can’t think of even one bad thing about it?” she persisted.

Now I started to become suspicious. “I'm sure I can find some really minor fault, if I look for it long enough.. But it would be irrelevant. Why do you want me to do this?”

“We had a call this morning. The publisher of this game has cut advertising down to bimonthly from monthly.”

Somewhere in the dim recesses of my brain, a metaphorical light bulb switched on. “Okay, I understand. I’ll E-mail a revision tomorrow.”

And I did indeed understand. Since the software publisher had reduced advertising, the magazine would reduce support to the publisher—in the form of making the product seem as if it were not as good as it really was. The American Way, I suppose.

To satisfy the editor's request, I cited some awkward passages in the game's manual. She wasn't satisfied with it, but she was on deadline and ended up cutting much of the manuscript anyway.

Naturally it occured to me that the bestselling status of some games was being bought, rather than earned. That would explain some really crummy games getting so much press ...

Yes, I was cynical, but I was a bit surprised, too. I had heard of payola, from the record company scandals of the 1950s and 1960s, all the way back to Vaudeville in the 1920s. But not in the 1980s—surely publishing was more enlightened than that.

But it wasn’t, and isn't. I can't cite any at the moment, but there are undoubtedly magazines today in which reviews are slanted one way or the other, depending on how much a publisher advertises.

Hence, some good books aren't reviewed because their publishers don't advertise. And sometimes useless books are reviewed and validated because the publisher advertises. And, now and then, bestsellers can be bought.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com/
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

Signs that You've "Arrived" as a Writer?

By what benchmarks does one measure his success as a writer? Does selling over 100,000 copies of a book mean you've arrived? Or do you have to make the New York Times bestseller list to feel that you are really and truly a by-damn author?

Even though I have made the Times bestseller list and enjoyed six-figure sales, neither of those quite did it for me. The first time I felt I'd achieved the status of full-fledged author was when I saw one of my books in a used bookstore. It legitimized everything; here was proof that someone had actually bought my book, and thought enough of it to pass it along to someone else, rather than trash it.Of course there are downsides to this sort of validation. For one thing, I make no money on used-book sales. And it would be more flattering if more people kept the books.

Still, I really enjoy the idea of seeing my books available after they're out of print. And I know I can always find a copy of a book when I've given away all my copies.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com
Addendum: Another commentary on this subject will be found in an earlier post, "6 Ways to Know if You're a Successful Writer" (which also appeared in The Writer magazine in 2006).

* That book that made the bestseller list was my co-authored CROSLEY: Two Brothers and a Business Empire that Transformed the Nation (Clerisy Press, 2006).

Advertising in E-Books

If a Web startup that went live in August succeeds, free ebooks may come to mean more than such hoary classics The Ancient Art of War, Paradise Lost, and The Odyssey. Unlike most free ebook packagers, WOWIO (http://www.wowio.com) offers modern, in-copyright works. Titles range from novels by Arthur C. Clarke and Kurt Vonnegut to William Stryon’s The Confessions of Nat Turner. Contemporary graphic novels and comics are also available, together with a number of out-of-copyright classics by writers such as Emily Dickenson and Jane Austen.

WOWIO downloads are provided to registered users as free PDF downloads, and are supported by full-page ads. Publishers share in the ad revenue, as do authors (though the amount that trickles down to a given author is likely to be miniscule, given the kinds of percentages specified in author contracts).

Most readers may find ads in a WOWIO ebook a bit startling the first few times. The ad pages in WOWIO ebooks are larger than the regular content pages; hence, when an ad comes up, it gives the impression of jumping on the screen. And the ads are in full color.

How many ads appear in a book? WOWIO founder William Lidwell says, “the goal is to keep it under a ratio of one ad page per three content pages. By comparison, many magazines have ratios as high as 1:1.” It doesn’t appear that the company has achieved the 3:1 ratio as yet; WOWIO versions of Player Piano and Cat’s Cradle contain six ads each.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) begins with positive identification of each downloader. WOWIO users are required to provide conventional identifying information (name, address, phone), and then positively verify their IDs with a credit card. Lidwell emphasizes that the credit card information is not retained, and no charges are made.

A unique identifying number is issued the user, and it is included on each page of every ebook the user downloads, along with the downloader’s name on the cover. Thus, if a WOWIO ebook is distributed, WOWIO or its publisher can go to the original downloader.

This “custom publishing” of ebooks goes beyond identifying the downloader. Ads included in an ebook are based on a demographics questionnaire that users fill out during signup. The company also provides a feature that allows users to filter potentially objectionable ads. Users do not receive ads for alcoholic beverages, gambling products and services, tobacco, or sexually-oriented products and services unless they that request ads in any or all of these categories be included in their books. Additional categories may be added in the future.

All titles are already available for sale as ebooks elsewhere, including Rosetta Books (http://www.rosettabooks.com).

WOWIO is not the only organization to bring ad-supported ebooks to the Web. A Minnesota company called Freeload Press http://www.freeloadpress.com offers free ebook versions of several dozen college textbooks in a variety of disciplines. The ebooks contain ads from companies such as Fedex Kinko’s and Total Recall Learning.

Students can also buy special ad-supported paperback versions of most texts from Freeload at substantial discounts over regular prices.

Of course, not every textbook students may need will be available from Freeload Press, and this likely to remain the case. But with textbooks averaging $90, most students will take anything they can get.

At least one attempt to subsidize textbooks with advertising preceded Freeload. In 2005 McGraw-Hill tested a program involving discounts on ebooks carrying ads. The program failed to generate enough interest to warrant continuing it. Ad-bearing ebooks might have been more attractive if they had been free. By the same token, hardcopy books with ads offered at discounts would probably have been more successful.

Also of note in the free ebook arena is the Baen Free Library (http://www.baen.com/library). Operated by science fiction and fantasy publisher Baen Books, the Baen Free Library has since 2000 made novels by noted writers such as Lois McMaster Bujold, Andre Norton, and David Drake available for download in multiple formats. The ebooks contain no advertising; the service is to promote the publisher’s titles and SF/fantasy in general.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

Whence Came the Web?

An editor recently told me that whenever he gets a book manuscript--or even a table of contents--that offers a history of the Internet or Web, he tells the author to remove it, because the story is always the same, and there's no way to check the source.

Just about every history of the Internet I've seen or heard is the same. Everyone tells the same story about ARPAnet, and it's been told so many times that it's almost as if it came to us set in stone. In fact, the conventional history of the Internet could be codified into something like this:

In the beginning there was no Connection. Then—Lo!—ARPAnet was brought forth upon the land by the scholars, and among themselves they learned to Connect. The Department of Defense took note and said, “Let there be DARPAnet!”

And the DoD saw that this was good, and said “Henceforth, let only scholars and soldiers be Connected,” and it was so, for the DoD was mighty, and all feared its wrath. TCP and IP were created, and the word was “Internet,” and it was good.

But the people, led by the merchants of the land, were sorely vexed, and demanded that they, too, be Connected ...

And so on. That's how conventional wisdom has it that the Internet began. Add a bit about a stranger from a far land to explain the Web, and the Online Genesis is complete!

The only problem with all this is that it's not true. Oh, certainly ARPAnet did some of the fundamental research in developing computer communications, but saying that ARPAnet is the Internet is like saying two wheels and an axle make an automobile.

The real story requires a book to tell. I'm writing it now ...
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

Six Ways to Know if You're a Successful Writer

1. People you don’t know start criticizing your work.
2. People you do know stop criticizing your work.
3. Strangers write to you and say, “I haven’t read anything of yours, but would you read something of mine?”
4. Your neighbors stop asking you when you’re going to get a job.
5. Friends start inviting you over to show you “... something I’ve been working on.”
6. You start cashing your checks instead of having them framed.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

Over 48,000 Copies Sold ...

Sales of CROSLEY: Two Brothers and a Business Empire that Transformed the Nation have topped 48,000. If you're curious about how the book was promoted, and the special geographic pattern of sales, have a look at this story in Publishers Weekly.

This comes after CROSLEY made the New York Times extended bestseller list, as well as the Wall Street Journal and Business Week lists.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com

Books about Writing, for Writers

The header says "Books for Writers," but note that this post isn't about books on writing how-to and technique. Rather, the following are books that will expand your knowledge of both the writing process and the publishing business.

• Another Life: A Memoir of Other People, by Michael Korda (Random House, 1999). Here's an excellent and entertaining guide to how the book publishing industry works.
• Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams, by M.J. Simpson (Justin, Charles & Co., 2005). If you have trouble finishing (or starting) a manuscript, don't panic! Adams suffered from the same problems as you do.
• Education of a Wandering Man, by Louis L'Amour (Bantam Books, 1990 Reissue). This is as close to an autobiography as L'Amour ever wrote. It provides an inside look at the writer's mind, and how he folded life experience into short stories and novels.
• How to Be Your Own Literary Agent: The Business of Getting a Book Published, Revised edition, by Richard Curtis (Houghton-Mifflin, 2003). Pretty much everything you need to know about the business end of writing books.
• Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond, by Andrew Lycett . This is an interesting biography on its own, with the bonus of covering a lot of the ins and outs of Fleming's literary dealings. You learn how Fleming got his books into print, how he promoted them, and even how much specific books earned.
• Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life, by Terry Brooks (Del Rey, 2004). An interesting mix of autobiography, writing business and how-to, and fantasy.
  

In addendum, if you are interested in writing for a living you may find my book, How to Become a Fulltime Freelance Writer, of interest. (An Ebook version will be available at Amazon soon.)
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com

Politics

Politics: The art of making people see what they want to see, rather than what is.

LitChick: Crosley book just won't quit

As of February 12, CROSLEY is on the Business Week hardcover bestseller list.

Sara Pearce, Cincinnati's LitChick, says: "Crosley book just won't quit!"

Newspaper book blogging ...

Here's something we don't see enough of: a dedicated book blog in a newspaper. Cincinnati's LitChick, Enquirer veteran Sara Pearce, provides some of the most comprehensive coverage of new books available. It's all from the reader's viewpoint, with lots of interesting background details on authors, publishers, and the books themselves. Regional and national.

Sara is currently running a poll as to which character readers think will die in the next (and final) Harry Potter book. Have a look, at:

LitChick: Hmm ... who do you think will die?

Check out some of the other features, too!
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com

Fame?

The more famous you are, the less you act it. The more famous you THINK you are, the more you act a fool about it.

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

CROSLEY Continues to Score

CROSLEY: Two Brothers and a Business Empire that Transformed the Nation continues to pop up on various bestseller lists. It's currently No. 6 on Barnes & Noble's list of bestselling business books, and has made the Wall Street Journal's hardcover business book list, as well as the New York Times extended bestseller list (twice).

Not bad for a book in its third month of life.

I'm presently working on follow-up books for the same audience. These are narrative nonfiction books that examine some fascinating business, personal, and technological subjects in the same way CROSLEY does.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com

Another Problem with Ebooks ...

When Ebooks are all we have (as enthusiasts predict will "someday" be the situation), what will authors autograph?
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com

Google, the McCartney Effect, and Writers

What's up with Google? Famous for searching, the company has moved into advertising, E-mail, and other Web ventures. Why? It's almost as if McDonald's started building houses, simply because it has the money.

What I think it happening is this: Having reached the summit and finding it can go no higher, Google hopes to duplicate the exhilaration of its original run-up to success by engaging in new projects. It’s not about the money; it’s about the magic.

But the magic isn’t there, thanks to what I call “The McCartney Effect.”

Paul McCartney has worked to recapture the magic of the Beatles’ early days since he wrote “Get Back.” But those days cannot live again because the uncertainty, anticipation, and risk are gone. That’s the McCartney Effect: You can’t undo the legacy of success.

Succeed or fail, Google trying new Web ventures is like Paul McCartney organizing new bands, making movies, writing opera and so on. He’s still McCartney, and Google is still Google. Neither will ever “get back.”

This is not uncommon in pop music or other facets of the entertainment industry, where few people every really drop out and disappear to the extent that they must truly start over as an unknown. When a person or organization reaches a certain level of fame, it is impossible to subtract that fame.

More examples: Chuck Berry returning from infamy and prison, or Willy Nelson coming back after being wiped out by the IRS. No problem! No risks or uncertainties. Each had his fame behind him--fame and images that obviously could not be taken away.

The effect doesn't seem to carry over to writers, though. Once a writer slips away from reader consciousness, making a comeback is like starting over. And if a writer tries a new endeavor, the fame and image don't seem to carry over--unlike, say, an actress becoming a singer, or vice-versa.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

How I Got Started Writing, Part II

In early 1960s I started paying attention to the “About the Author” blurbs on book flaps and noticed an interesting common thread. Most writers seemed to have spent their pre-writing lives working at jobs involving manual labor at poverty wages in unidentified but possibly exotic locations, rather like Bob Dylan’s early self-portrayals.

This left my young self with the impression that one had to live in poverty and work a lot of boring jobs before becoming a writer. Which begged the question: Did holding mindless, low-paying jobs make you want to write, or were writers incapable of holding a job? Not that I was thinking of becoming a writer. But some writers made such an impression on me that I was inspired to learn who these people were.

Ten years later, at the age of 20, I found myself working on the assembly line at a GM plant. I was taking evening classes at the University of Cincinnati, driven by a fuzzy idea of becoming an engineer. I had no idea of writing for a living, or writing very much at all beyond the occasional newspaper piece.

If it hadn’t been for the high pay and great benefits, I wouldn’t have stayed at the job long. The work was physically demanding and deadly boring--circumstances that drove some to seek relief in alcohol and drugs on the job. Others, high-seniority men who had the easier jobs, operated small businesses that fed on the boredom. They sold pot, pints of whiskey, pocket knives, and a wide variety of other merchandise that they hand-delivered to customers the line. One such entrepreneur not only sold whiskey but also managed a pornographic book-of-the-week club. Peter Lorre rented out 120-page paperback novels for twenty-five cents a day. (No, it wasn't the real Peter Lorre, but this guy could have been his twin.) For the less literate, Mr. Lorre offered a selection of porno picture books at slightly higher prices.

Although I was bored, getting drunk or stoned didn’t appeal to me, and reading porno novels seemed pointless. But that gave me an idea. Each day I took a book to work with me, mostly science fiction or mystery, though I alternated my reading with textbooks. I managed to read a book a day for most of a year, stealing glances at pages as I waited for the next car on the line to roll up, or during the rare 8- or 10-minute period of freedom I could create by working back the line.

It was a desperate existence, however well-paid. But in the summer of 1971 a slump in the new-car market brought sudden relief. The plant cut an entire shift and I was laid off. No worries, though: I had worked on that line for over a year (minus a couple of months on strike), and under the terms of the union contract I would receive 95 percent of my regular pay every week for six months. Plus medical benefits.

The only requirement was that I apply for a job at least once a week, and report that to the state unemployment bureau. There was a Catch-22 in my favor: I didn’t have to accept a job that paid less than what I was already receiving. As you probably know, the take-home pay of auto workers was huge—almost university vice-president level. When you’re 20 years old and unskilled who else is going to hire you at six times the minimum wage?

Right. There I was, my life completely subsidized. I was a new father, which took up some time, but I was mostly bored. It was a less-antagonizing boredom than standing on the assembly line, but boring enough. Getting another job was out; I’d seen co-workers try that, get caught, and lose the free ride. Going into fulltime party mode wasn’t for me. But I couldn’t just do nothing. More than that, I felt moved to do something worthwhile.

I had no hobbies at the time. I tried volunteering for community organizations, but the opportunities were limited. So I continued writing newspaper stories, for which I was actually paid from time to time, anywhere from $5 to $15. I also managed to talk the owner of a print shop into letting me write some ads for him. I made less than $200 writing that year, but I was beginning to feel like a writer. Doing something worthwhile, or at least something that produced tangible results.

I traveled some. I was still reading, and picked up a dozen or so magazines every month. I subscribed to several, including Popular Science, Mechanix Illustrated, Science Digest, and Analog science fiction magazine. I was strongly drawn by the idea of writing for magazines, but I didn’t feel that I had the skills. I thought about writing books, but here again I felt my skills were lacking. Still, there was one book in particular I made notes to start several times: a biography of Powel Crosley, Jr.

I was also intimidated by the idea of creating a book-length manuscript. At that time in my life I was unable to put so much sustained effort into a project without feedback. Shorter works were my métier.

And short fiction ... well, there was an idea. I was reading a lot of fiction in the monthly magazines, and short story collections were prominent among the books I took to work every day. Why not try fiction?

Why not, indeed? Years of reading had left me with some idea of the structure of fiction. I noticed how sentences were organized, soaked up dialogue technique, and studied the styles of various writers. I was already editing stories in my mind, changing characters and outcomes. (It helped that my 7th-grade English teacher had drilled us on sentence diagramming so much that for weeks afterward I was mentally diagramming sentences as I spoke them.)

So I spent a lot of hours at the typewriter, pounding out mainstream and science fiction stories that were more wish-fulfillment fantasies than marketable fiction. I found it gratifying to write short stories, but I was frustrated that my stories didn’t read as well as published work, and mostly didn’t have satisfying endings. (Some had no endings at all.)

After a few hundred pages I decided to seriously attack the problem of writing style, to answer the question of why my writing was so ... clunky. I studied how writers like Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein achieved certain effects, and slowly developed sets of rules to help me produce smoother prose. Heavy editing and rewriting reinforced what I was learning.

The six-month summer eventually came to an end, and I had to find a job. I returned to the automotive industry; family connections help me “get on” at the local Ford transmission plant. Big money, big benefits. I was in Fat City again--but with a killer schedule.

Night shift. Noisy. Grim, bleak, and depressing. Midnight to 8:00 AM four days a week, and Midnight to Noon three days a week. Reading was forbidden, a covert activity. I was lucky to get in 20 pages a night. I drove home each morning (or early afternoon) to toss and turn for hours before I dropped into a fitful sleep, only to wake up a couple hours before I was due at the plant--when everyone else was going to bed. No time for writing. I wanted out, but it seemed to go against all logic to walk away from the kind of money I was making, the equivalent of $3,500 a week in 2007 dollars.

One morning I stopped by a Walden Books store (they were two words back then) to find something to read myself to sleep with. I was perusing the science fiction shelves when for whatever reason my eyes shifted to the right, into the Reference section.

A title on a book’s spine jumped out at me: Writer’s Market.

“I wonder if that’s what I think it is?” I asked myself. I slid the book off the shelf and flipped through it with growing excitement. It was what I thought: a directory of magazine and book publishers for freelance writers--imagine that! Inside I found magazines that I read, and--amazingly--most of the magazines paid money.

I paid my $7.95 and took the fat paperback home. It was a revelation. I had never thought of just sending an article to a magazine, or even sending a query. Magazines were put together by editors in faraway places, people beyond the pale, people who would ignore submissions from someone in Cincinnati, of all places.

But Writer’s Market indicated otherwise. These publishers actually seemed to be inviting submissions, from anyone. As I paged through the book that morning, I was set on a new road. (Little did I suspect that one day I would be endorsing this book in full-page ads in Writer’s Digest.)

Thrilled, I wrote up a short humor piece and sent it to a magazine called Modern People. I’d never seen the magazine, but the WM listing said the editor wanted humor. A few weeks later I received a check for $25. Wow! I was hooked. Maybe I could make some decent money at this stuff, enough to let me take a more sane job.

I may even then have been thinking, in the back of my mind, about making my living as a writer, but consciously I was still thinking of engineering.

The next time I took a newspaper story to Leona Farley I told her about the sale, and Writer’s Market. As it turned out, she knew all about it. And she gave me a dozen or so back issues of Writer’s Digest, a magazine I didn’t know existed. (I was so busy reading marketing listings in WM that I didn’t notice it was published in Cincinnati by Writer’s Digest.)

This was a real boost. Here were people telling you how to write better, and how to get your work read and published. I started sending out more articles, and queries, too. And it didn’t bother me when I learned that Modern People was a tabloid when I finally found an issue at a downtown newsstand. The checks didn’t bounce, and that was good enough for me.
--Mike http://www.michaelabanks.com

Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

How I Got Started Writing, Part I

Thanks to the Crosley book making the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists, I’ve been interviewed by several newspapers. Most of the reporters were curious as to how I got into writing for publication. In case you're curious, too, here’s the story I told them:

Although I always did well in languages in grade school and high school (English and Spanish), I never gave a thought to being a writer. I admired several writers, but if I thought about what I would do “when I grew up,” I figured I would be an aeronautical engineer or, later, a rock musician.

Aside from class assignments, my writing was limited to a few songs and quite a bit of poetry. Most of the poetry consisted of typical teenage angst and social criticism, as did the song lyrics. An English teacher persuaded me to give one short poem to the school newspaper as part of a class project. It was published, but I didn’t see myself as a writer. I felt more like I was just getting something off my chest, and otherwise didn't share my poetry. (The paper was the Milford [Ohio] High School Reflector.)

My first serious thoughts of writing were inspired a couple of years later by a fellow named Cary Sunderhaus. Cary and I had been friends off and on through most of high school. After graduation I moved out of Milford and we saw less of each other. But I still picked up the hometown weekly newspaper, the Milford Advertiser. One Friday I was scanning its pages when a familiar name caught my eye. There, beneath a headline about a golf tournament was the line, "by Cary Sunderhaus." When did he start writing?

I read the article, which was well-written, and thought, “This looks like fun. I'll bet I can do it, too!”

I’m not completely sure where that thought came from, but thus was born an urge to write and be read that continues to drive me today. It was supported by my having recently bought a cheap typewriter at a yard sale. I had no idea what I would do with it at the time; it just seemed like a good idea to own a typewriter. (I had taken typing in high school for the easy half-credit, finishing with a C-.)

And now I had a use for the typewriter.

Going from idea to publication was fairly easy, thanks to the fact that the paper’s editor, Leona Farley, was the mother of another friend, Mike Farley. If I hadn’t known her, I probably would not have approached the paper; I was seriously introverted.

But having a contact gave me confidence. All I needed was something to write about. Something timely and newsworthy ...

The subject came to me almost immediately: it was May, 1971, and everyone was complaining about a proposed increase in the cost of a First Class stamp, from six cents to eight cents. I would, I decided, write a public service piece about the issue. Pencil and notebook in hand, I went to the Milford Post Office, where I interviewed a clerk with whom I’d often spoken, and asked two customers what they thought about the increase. Armed with carefully copied quotes, I went home to tap out the story on the old typewriter. I kept in mind the “who, what, when, where, why” rules I’d once read about newspaper writing, but mainly my technique was to write and rewrite until the story “felt” right.

The next day I took my two-page manuscript to Leona Farley. She looked it over, made some corrections, and told me she would see if the paper could use it. Three days later I opened the paper to find myself in print!

There followed a few more stories for the Advertiser, after which I branched out with small pieces for other local weekly papers. Leona was encouraging, and helped me improve my writing with suggestions like, "If you're not sure you have the right word, replace it with its antonym. If you do that and the sentence says the opposite of what you wanted to say, you had the right word."

All of which helped prepare me for the next step: writing for national magazines. My first editor would have a role in that chapter of my writing career, too.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

Getting Your Book Published

"I've been working on a book. How can I get it published?" This is a question I get asked a lot. After some discussion I usually learn that what the writer really wants to know is how she can finish the book, and whether there's any way to know if it's any good.

It happens that I'm teaching a course for the University of Cincinnati's Communiversity program starting next week, so I've been thinking about these matters a bit.

Rather than tackle how to write a book (certainly a subject for another posting), let's go to the main question: how does one get published? The short answer is that you write your (book, article, story) to completion, submit the manuscript to someone who might buy it (do your market research first), and if it's rejected send it out to another market. If it's returned with a note suggesting changes, by all means make those changes and resubmit.

In real life, it's not always that simple. Requests for changes will be rare. And rejections inspire questions, such as "How many rejections should I collect before I give up?" and "How do I know if my work needs changes?" Not to mention, "If I'm rejected does it mean my writing is poor?"

Let's examine each of those questions. (The answers I provide apply whether you're submitting a completed manuscript or a proposal. As for whether you should be submitting a proposal or completed manuscript, see my article in the November, 2006, issue of The Writer magazine.)

How many rejections should I collect before I give up?
Only you can answer this question. The first two short stories I published each went to seven magazines before they sold. My first book sold to the first publisher to whom I submitted it. The same thing happened with the first newspaper and magazine articles I wrote. My second book sold on its fourth submission. I have stories that I wrote and submitted eight or nine times, and never sold. And just today my newest book proposal was rejected. (I'll send it back out tomorrow.)

Obviously, persistence can be a good thing, but there is no set number of rejections. I know of an author who submitted his first novel 84 times before it sold. That's extreme, and I don't recommend that kind of persistence. It can be emotionally wearing, and an absolute waste of time. The time and effort you put into the 10th through 84th submissions might be better invested in writing a new novel, one that may have a good chance of selling because of what you learned writing the first book.

For my part, I figure five or six rejections mean that the manuscript needs work, or that it's hopeless. At that point I examine it to see what sorts of changes I might make.

How do I know if my work needs changes?
Most writers are not qualified to critique their own work--not immediately. Repeated rejection may be taken as an indication that the manuscript needs some changes, corrections, or improvements. But you can't be sure until you've been away from the manuscript for a while. Ideally, you will be working on another project while the manuscript is in circulation, and hence it will have been out of your thoughts for a while. At this point, when you have as objective a viewpoint as possible, you can judge whether the work needs changes, or if you should just keep submitting it. (Recognizing the changes you need to make is a subject for another posting.)

If you feel that you can't improve the manuscript, perhaps it's time to retire it for a while. A few months later you may find that the market has changed, or that your perspective with respect to that particular work has matured enough to enable you to see what might be wrong with it.

If I'm rejected does it mean my writing is poor?
This question, implied by the preceding one, is a tough one. Manuscripts are rejected for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with quality. There are almost as any reasons for a manuscript being rejected as there are for bad books getting into print. Here again, detailing those reasons is a subject for another post, but you should be aware that a rejection doesn't mean you should give up. It may hurt, and you may take it personally, but rejection is not necessarily a comment on the quality of your writing or the viability of your subject matter. Only repeated rejection, combined with the ability to critique your work after gaining some distance from it can tell you that.

A Solution?
If you have only one writing project going at a time, all the worry over rejection (not to mention the length of time it takes to get responses to submissions) can skew your judgment. Waiting six months to be rejected can shoot the hell out your confidence. So can going through several three-week waits followed by rejection.

To avoid this, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Work on more than one novel or story or poem or whatever at a time, and keep multiple manuscripts in circulation. When you do this, a given rejection will have far less impact. And when you hit writer's block, you will have an alternate project to tall back on, which means you won't compound the block with frustration over not getting any writing done.

Do I Need an Agent?
Looking back over this post, I see that I haven't said anything about agents. To answer the obvious question, you can sell a book without an agent. But it can help to have one--in terms of getting your manuscript in front of the right editors, getting a good contract, and in other ways.
(Do I have an agent? Right now, no. But I've agented for other writers.)

Recommended Reading
For lots of useful info on the book publishing business in general, read Another Life: A Memoir of Other People, by Michael Korda. Want to learn about agents and marketing? Read How to Be Your Own Literary Agent, by Richard Curtis.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

Making the Bestseller Lists

Almost nothing turns out the way you might expect or want it to. A case in point: Between December 23 and January 7, CROSLEY: Two Brothers and a Business Empire that Transformed the Nation made the New York Times Bestseller List, the Wall Street Journal's hardcover nonfiction list, and the New York Times Hardcover Business Best Sellers list.

If you believe what you see in movies, you might expect me to be whooping it up--buying a new house and looking for a 1963 Jaguar XK-E coupe as I sign six-figure contracts and consider film offers.

Hardly. Little has changed, at least not on the professional and financial fronts. Neither editors or agents are contacting me with offers (though I'm open). I'm in the same nice little house, and still drive the mini-van with the trick transmission. My banker friend, Greg, is still waiting to recommend investments, and I'm putting off buying that 1958 Fender Precision bass.

Did I expect my bank account to suddenly swell to mammoth proportions, or that I would get calls from Hollywood? Truthfully, no. I've seen enough writers make bestseller lists and fade into obscurity to know that bestsellerdom isn't necessarily life-altering. Besides, these things take time. (Remember Cheops' Law: Everything takes longer and costs more.)

But what the heck--I never expected to even make one bestseller list, let alone two!

And some things have changed. Relatives I haven't heard from in years (and who once ridiculed my writing) are calling me. When I do a bookstore signing, scores or hundreds of people turn out instead of two or three. People who have seen me on TV or in newspapers congratulate me and enthuse over all the money I must be getting paid.

Most of them are so honestly happy for me that I hate to burst the bubble by explaining that it will be most of a year before even I begin to see any money from the book. That the publishing world has taken little notice of my name on the bestseller lists. That, aside from a box of books and a couple of neat shirts I haven't gained anything material from this.

Oh, certainly I had a book advance, but that was years ago, and I spent far more time writing the book than the advance warranted. (It's usually my practice to get a large enough advance to cover the time I put into a book. That way, if it doesn't earn royalties or sub-rights money I'm not disappointed. But CROSLEY was a special case. I'd been waiting decades to write this book)

Otherwise, publisher response is as slow as it ever was. I suppose I could speed up the responses by making a nuisance of myself, but that's no way to sell books. (Another aphorism comes to mind: If you press for an answer, you'll likely get the one you don't want.)

The lesson in all this is fairly straightforward: Public acclaim doesn't always translate to professional success. But it's all fun!
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

Writers as Optimists

If there was a job description for writing for publication, optimism would head the list of required character traits. After all, what is more optimistic than writing a story or novel without any feedback, then sending it out to be judged by someone you've never met and who has too much to read, anyway? Only an optimist would seriously contemplate such an absurd act.

Before I started writing for a living I regarded myself as a pessemist. I was always looking at the negative side of things, worrying about what might go wrong next. But 20 years of fulltime writing has shown me that I'm a fulltime optimist. Without optimism, I’d never have made it for a year, much less 20! Late checks, impossible deadlines, canceled contracts and columns … any of these could have easily run my career right into a dead-end if I wasn't optimistic that things would get better through my continued efforts.

So far, it's worked out to be a self-fulfilling prediction.

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

Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

How Bad Books Get Into Print

Three chapters into the novel you bought yesterday you find that you just can’t go on reading it. The characters are wooden, the writing is stilted, and the dialogue is unbelievable. Viewpoints shift and the action leaps through time and space without benefit of transitions.

You know you can write better than this in your sleep. How did this mess get into print? you wonder. Did someone sleep with an editor, or what?

Actually, some books are published because the author slept with an editor (or a publisher). But that's not the only reason bad books see print. Sometimes a badly written novel slips into print because an editor has a vacant spot on her list and a writer friend or relative who needs work. And it has happened that a bestselling author falters (or doesn’t care any more) and turns out a poor novel that gets into print because of the author’s reputation. And although I don't know of any instances, I'm sure that bribery has gotten a few books into print.

Some questionable novels are “contract breakers,” poorly-written tomes intended to barely fulfill the terms of a publishing contract. The hope is that the publisher will reject the manuscript and release the author from her contract. An author may do this after signing a multiple-book contract with a publisher who proves to be less than proficient in the marketplace. A contract breaker may also be used to get around a common book contract provision that gives the author’s current publisher first refusal rights on his next book.
If the author is lucky, the publisher will drop the book. But the publisher might take the book anyway, in which case another bad book is born.

Why put such a book on the market? This may be done out of spite, or because the publisher figures the author’s name will sell the book.

A tight publishing schedule can also propel a contract breaker onto bookstore shelves. If the title is already scheduled for publication and there’s nothing available to replace it, the publisher has no choice but to put it out there.

All of which may seem illogical, but the nature of book publishing is such that most publishers would rather put out a bad book than miss a publishing date. Once a book is scheduled and announced, money is spent and irreversible processes are set in motion. At the very least, a publisher faces embarrassment by not releasing an announced book. But there are worse consequences to not fulfilling the expectations of distributors, wholesalers, and retailers, including but not limited to reduced orders on future titles.

Time-sensitive titles (such as movie tie-ins or books linked to news events) can also fall victim to publishing schedules. These books are often written on nearly impossible deadlines, and the quality reflects it. But agreements with studios or other entities require that the book be published by a certain date, and marketing often takes precedent over quality.

Many books are scheduled for publication before the author completes the manuscript, and it sometimes happens that what the author turns in is not what the editor expected. Still, the book is scheduled to go into production, and there’s no time to make changes. And so the disappointing manuscript becomes a disappointing book.

Then there are late manuscripts. For whatever reason, a novel isn’t ready when it’s due. So the editor puts out a call and grabs the first complete manuscript she can locate that fulfills the genre requirements of the missing work. The replacement may be of minimal quality, but the publishing slot is filled.

Finally, as you may suspect, some bad books are the result of poor judgment on the part of an editor or publisher. One or the other may be so enamored of an author's writing style that they are blind to its poor plot. Or maybe wishful thinking fools them into thinking that a really well-written book has substance that it lacks.

Obviously, just making it into print doesn’t mean a work is “good.” Remember that the next time a bad book makes you wonder if your own work is on the wrong track.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com
Copyright © 2006, Michael A. Banks

Collaborating with Non-Writers

Every writer hears it sooner or later: "Hey--I got a great idea for a book! You write it and we'll split the money!"

There are a couple of problems with such a proposal. First, ideas aren't difficult to come by; they occur naturally. The person proposing the collaboration usually offers nothing more than a subject or situation, and perhaps some information. Nothing the writer couldn't work up on her own.

And the non-writer has no idea of the time and effort writing a successful book requires. Otherwise he wouldn't propose "splitting" the money with the writer, who is the one who will do all the work. Doing so is like demanding half the money after pointing out to to someone else that a certain corner is a great spot for a restaurant, have them build and operate the restaurant, then demand half the money.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

Writer's Digest: Down the Drain?

"Writer's Digest isn't read by professional writers, but it is written by professional writers." --Jerry Pournelle

It was a real surprise to see Writer's Digest go bi-monthly last Spring. I started reading the magazine in 1971, when an editor friend gave me some back-issues, and I wrote for it throughout the 1980s. (I got to writing for it so often that I was identified with the magazine; for two years I was paid to endorse their companion annual market directory, Writer's Market, in full-page ads.)

Back then, when someone asked me what kinds of magazines I wrote for, I would say something like, "Oh, several. Analog, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, computer magazines, Writer's Digest ..."

"Reader's Digest, hey? Wow--lot of people read that!"

And I would explain that Writer's Digest was a magazine for writers. Eventually I stopped mentioning it--not out of embarrassment, but because talking about it was a waste of time unless the person who asked was a writer or would-be writer.

I stopped writing for WD in the 1990s, just as it began to decline, a bit after Bill Brohaugh moved from being the magazine's editor to become editor of Writer's Digest Books. Tom Clarke made an effort to keep the magazine on course, but he wasn't in the position of editor long enough. After Tom a succession of editors struggled to change the magazine's look, feel, and content--but none approached the quality of the magazine under Brohaugh, John Brady, or Kirk Polking.

When Richard Rosenthal decided to retire and sell the company that published WD (F&W Publications), the magazine reflected that change. It became less personable and more hobby-oriented.

Why? I heard that the new owners were pushing to double the company's revenue, and the magazine's design and content seemed to reflect that. It was as if they were striving find a formula or package that would push readers' "buy" buttons. (One approach was to link a book to every article ... a bit too in-your-face, folks!) The emphasis was more on using the magazine to sell books and other products than providing content that would make readers want to buy the magazine.

In the meantime, many of the company's best people left. And apparently a lot of readers decided they wanted something other than a catalog.

I won't be very surprised if WD folds, or is sold off to a private company. Then again, maybe the management will realize that the writers and would-be writers who make up WD's audience buy the magazine for its own sake, and bring back usable content.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com
E-mail to: Mike [insert the "at" sign here] michaelabanks.com
======

Will They Steal My Idea? Unethical Writers and Editors

Many writers and would-be writers worry about someone stealing their work, or stealing their ideas. I always encourage the writers to not worry about such things, to concentrate on their work, instead.

Still, one can't ignore the possibility of theft of intellectual property completely, and I know that many of you are curious about how this stuff happens. So I'll relate here some of my experiences with certain unethical (or simply ignorant) scum of the Earth.

Note that my brushes with these matters were not as high-profile or dramatic as those involving J.K. Rowling or Dan Brown. There wasn't near as much money involved. But they serve to illustrate not only how theft can happen, but also how to deal with it.

On to cases ... my one verifiable instance of plagiarism involved someone lifting my work in big chunks and publishing it under someone else's name. That was a fairly straightforward incident; one had only to look at certain parts of the works involved to see the plagiarism. The problem was resolved by my publisher's attorneys contacting the offending publisher, after which the latter pulped thousands of copies of the offending work.

More subtle were certain cases of someone taking an idea and running with it. Before you start wondering whether you should have kept quiet about your idea for novel that resembles a certain film now showing, let me explain what I mean by an "idea." Or, what I don't mean. By "idea," I don't mean, "I have an idea about this evil galactic empire that existed long ago and the only person who can stop the spread of evil is a young man who has no idea of his heritage, special powers, and destiny ..."

This particular idea, which you'll recognize as "Star Wars," was the foundation for scores of novels and short stories published long before George Lucas was born.

It is a plot situation, not a firm idea or story. As such, it is not copyrightable, and not protected by law. Specific works, in their content and very order of words are what copyright protects. So you are free to write a novel about an evil galactic empire whose only salvation is a dispossessed, unaware prince. Just as anyone is free to write a novel about aliens destroying the Earth's economy with matter duplicators (the plot situation in my first novel, The Odysseus Solution, written with Dean Lambe).

Doing so is no more plagiarism than Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres (it's King Lear all over), West Side Story (Romeo and Juliet), and Forbidden Planet (The Tempest). The same is true of Pygmalion-based tales such as My Fair Lady which in a way became Pretty Woman and bunch of novels and a television series. If plots were protectable from "theft," there would be only one locked-room mystery, only one time travel story, only one story about an African-American who commits justifiable homicide in Mississippi, and so forth.

What is protected is what you do with an idea. Thus, you can query a magazine editor about doing an article on the subject of garage bands in the Midwest, and the editor can turn you down and ask another writer to do an article on that subject--with impunity. Such action is ethically crummy and a ripoff, but there's nothing illegal about it. I've had it happen, and I'll be glad to tell you who did it--privately.

But if you write an article about garage bands in the Midwest, send it to the editor, get turned down, and then see the unique spin you gave the subject in the same magazine under someone else's name, you probably have cause for action. If your sentences or paragraphs are copied, you definitely have cause for action.

I've not had submitted articles stolen, nor short stories. Just about any magazine editor is glad to buy what you write, and credit you, so as to get more of your work. But I have had book ideas--and more--stolen.

The first time this happened, a manager at a publishing house asked me to submit a book proposal on a certain subject to a specific editor, which I did. After waiting five weeks I telephoned the editor to ask about the proposal. Yes, the editor had received the proposal, and "... I folded it in with some other proposals on the same subject to give to another writer who will be writing the book."

WHAT? Hold everything!

My stomach lurched. Invectives and vulgarities rushed to the tip of my tongue, and I bit them back with an effort.

"You can't do that!" I said instead. "I was asked to submit the proposal on the understanding that I would write the book."

"Well," came the reply, "isn't that how everybody does it? Just take the best of all the material to create the book?"

Yeah, sure, lady! And when I need some lunch money I'll just go through your pocketbook, and take your ATM card for later.

"No, that is not how everybody does it." Some of the invective spewed forth at that point; I'll leave that to your imagination. I later learned that this was the editor's first job in publishing (no surprise). I suppose the editor thought I was doing this for fun. Or maybe the publisher thought they could just steal from anyone with impunity.

I contacted the president of the company, who gave me an apology and a few hundred bucks. But never again will I submit anything to that company.

A couple of years later I was asked to submit a proposal for a book to a publisher with whom I'd worked in the past. This was an outfit I trusted. As with the incident just described, I waited a few weeks, then telephoned to inquire as to the status of the book. "Oh," said editor B, "we contracted for that book four months ago."

What madness is this? "Then why solicit a proposal from me?" I demanded. My shoulders were hunched. My right hand clenched the phone so strongly that it began to ache. "Why ask me for a proposal when you had someone signed to write the book?"

"Well, my boss said to ask you."

I called the boss, editor B, who declared that he didn't know the book had already been signed when he told editor A to solicit the proposal. A blatant lie; the other author was well into the project, and there was no way editor A could not have known about the book because he had to approve the contract. The only questions was whether both editors thought it was a good idea to "help out" the author by taking my ideas, and if the author was in on it.

I managed to raise enough fuss with management to get one of these jerks fired, and was given a tiny financial compensation. None of this made up for the loss of time and effort on my part. (Editor B doubtless went on to pull unethical stunts on other writers.) And then there were the anticipated book credit and earnings. I suppose I might have brought suit over that one, but I was too busy writing to bother. And, even though I'd won civil suits in the past, I wasn't anxious to get into another one.

Needless to say, this is another publisher I avoid and warn others away from.

So, yes: plagiarism happens, and ideas are stolen. And the best way to deal with them, short of threatening suit, is to go over the offender's head.

But when you consider that I've had so few incidents in a career that includes publishing over three dozen books and 1,000 magazine pieces, you can see that they are the exception rather than the rule.

Still, the low probability doesn't make such events any less disturbing.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks
E-mail to: Mike [insert the "at" sign here] michaelabanks.com

We're All Best-Selling Authors on this Bus!

Used to be, if a book was labeled "bestseller" or an author "bestselling" (or "best-selling"), it meant something. A true bestseller sold more copies than the average book, and made the New York Times bestseller list.

And, it followed, a bestselling author was the author of a bestseller--a book that had sold hundreds of thousands of copies, maybe even millions of copies.

Assuming that making a bestseller list is a valid endorsement (and whether that's true is a subject for another blog entry), it's natural to let potential readers know (on second and third and nth printings) that the book sold enough copies to make such a list, and therefore might be interesting.

Where a new book by a previously bestselling author is involved, it's equally natural to want readers to know that this writer has sold a lot of books, since it is assumed that knowing the author has sold a large number of at least one title will motivate readers to by her new book.

But both bestseller and bestselling lost any real meaning years ago, thanks to the terms being applied indiscriminately. I've seen books that I know didn't sell 6,000 copies labeled bestselling. Sometimes the cover on a writer's first book lauds him as a "bestselling author." What?

When I was writing cover copy 20 years ago, I refused to use either term with any book that hadn't made some sort of list. Still, quite a few books that hadn't even made a grocery list ended up with something like "a new thrilling bestseller," or "Sylvanus Spatula, bestselling author of Picking a Molecule," splashed on their covers. (Editors and publishers have the final say on such things, after all.) Observing this, I learned to disregard best-anything in book descriptions. I suspect that the typical reader has done the same, even when the writer in question really has had a bestseller.

If book cover copy is going to brag, I'd much rather see it brag appropriately. Perhaps with a line like one proposed by the late Martin Caidin (bestselling author of The Six-Million Dollar Man) for one of his novels: "Forget bestselling: this book grabs you by the balls and drags you screaming through 320 pages of terror!"
--Mike
The definitely-selling author of The eBay Survival Guide, Crosley: Two Brothers and a Business Empire that Transformed the Nation, and other titles.
E-mail to: Mike [insert the "at" sign here] michaelabanks.com
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks
http://www.michaelabanks.com