My Book Deal Ruined My Life

And finally, realize that a book is merely a means to an end. Standard industry royalties will never make you rich; lectures and seminars might.

That's an excellent point. In the same way audio recordings are becoming virtually free commercials for a musician's live performances, non-fiction books are becoming virtually free advertisements for one's professional or personal services.

For fiction...just forget it. In our television-dominated culture people don't read books any more, so there are only going to be ten to twenty fiction writers worldwide at any given time who are really making big money from selling novels. There's more money in the anonymity of writing for television and movies, but the barriers to entry there are extraordinarily high.

The best way to get started is to create an eBook, sell it from your own web site, and as you said, build up an audience and credibility.

...posting on the blog and message boards...the literary equivalent of living in a trailer park.

Ouch!!! At least FreeRepublic is a double-wide sitting in a nice spot. ;)

Authors are like professional athletes. Successful ones are paid large sums of money to do what the rest of us gladly do for free. But for every successful major league ball player making the serious money, there are a thousand who never made the big time.

It is the nature of the beast. So you do what you want and follow your dream. Maybe you make it, and maybe you don’t. But if you have done it right, you have a good time along the way.

Bookmarking bump!

I’ve been there...

If you use a traditional publisher approach, you line up a publisher by first writing a book proposal. In this earliest part of the publishing process, the proposal is more important than the manuscript. Publishers have better things to do than sit down and read every manuscript that comes in. Most of these wind up in the proverbial “slush pile” where they gather dust. Sometimes, if the stars are in alignment and the karma is good, an intern might discover your work in that huge pile of good-intentioned efforts and something might happen. And one day you might win the lottery too.

I usually write a 40-page (or so) book proposal that describes the premise, who the market is, how to work the market and get publicity, chapter titles and summaries (that can change as I actually write the book), my bio, tear sheets and clips of other things I’ve done, DVDs of TV appearances (The View, Fox, ESPN) and tapes of radio interviews (local, national and a few overseas), and a tentative preface or foreword, plus maybe a chapter or two. http://lisaekus.com/literary-proposal.asp

I sell the book idea through the proposal, really a marketing tool. With this, you sell the manuscript and yourself-—and they go hand-in-hand. First you have to "sell" an agent. Then, if an acquisition editor likes it, he/she then has to sit down with a board of his/her peers and sell the idea to them. If it gets a thumbs down, you don’t go and spend 2 weeks on a bender, you simply tell your agent to keep pushing at the next publishing house on his/her list. http://lisaekus.com/

After I get a contract, THEN I write the book. Why spend months/years writing a manuscript that we can’t sell?

The proposal will get you a contract and an advance, and once all the details are worked out, that’s when I write the book.

Acquisition editors will read a proposal, especially if you have a good agent who will send your proposal to publishers who she knows have an interest in my subject matter. I don't waste much time with websites of writing "experts." Many of them are put together by someone who has sold 100 books of poems with LuLu or just had an article published in the hometown paper with a circulation of 1,500. There are a LOT of them out there. I also quit going to writers groups. They all to often consists of unsure writers who want to know all about how to handle a book tour, getting on Oprah, what they will insist upon in their contract, and how much money they will make. The cart, all too often, is placed well before the horse with these people. I know. I've been there. Talk to published authors and read some how-to books from those who have really been published---and least one time by a traditional publisher. Pay a few bucks for a phone consultation with authors who have an agent, who have been published with consistentcy through various means (traditional, self-published, subsidized, etc.) and who know the advantages and disadvantages of each approach); and then close your eyes and jump in! I go crazy when I read postings on writing web sites (and FR) of people with 10 manuscripts in their closets but haven't done a thing to get them ready for the publishing process. What's it going to take? Eleven manuscripts? Twenty? Fifty? Cut the BS, and just do it---but have a plan. Having someone say "No, it's not what we're currently looking for" is not the end of the world. Rejection is just one part of the process. Deal with it. I know it's so much safer to talk about your unread manuscript than have someone tell you it's not what they're looking for. No guts. No glory. Just DO it!

Let me echo the sentiment of some other posters on here. Just finish the book and go for it. If you get it published, I’d be happy to go out and buy it. I happen to be a notorious book addict.

As for authors incorporating their own experiences into novels, that is the seed of all creation. I always think of William Styron (God rest his soul) and one of the books he wrote that moved me deeply; Sophie’s Choice. He met a woman in an apartment building he lived in and his brief encounter(s) with her were the life force that began “Sophie.” I love that.

God bless and don’t get discouraged!

I was crying in my coffee too hard, from the first third of the article, to finish it.

Woe is the author. Snif.

I'm with ya'. I live in MD and am heavily into gardening (400 Hosta varieties for starters....THEN I start to get obsessive!!!)

We ALMOST moved to Beaufort, SC a few years ago....then I decided it just was too damn cold there too! When I move, it will be tropical. I'll give up the Hostas and start on Hibiscus.

I already have half a dozen palm trees, bananas and Spanish moss growing outside year round here (Z-7).

If I thought that man-made global warming was real, I'd be sitting in my back yard spraying CO2 into the air.

And, I live on the coastal plain...so my soil is like yours acidic peat sand. It can be a bit frustrating at times... Worse are the voles. I sure do hate those suckers....

I have found with many authors is their inability to realize that a successful book is 25% writing it and 75% promoting it.

All excellent points. I have successfully followed & executed similar steps and processes in the technical marketplace. Eventually, I began to focus on electronic publishing, with which I've been involved now for many years.

The only exception I would make to your comment above is that this generally applies to all life activities. It's only through experience that one begins to realize that life is like an iceberg (oblique pun intended). That is, 90% of one's efforts will be directed towards activities you didn't even know existed until you became involved.

This holds true for engineers who exhaust themselves on design, only to discover that debug & integration take X times as long. Or the attorney who only finds out later that initial research has nothing on presentation & review. Writers are no different; only after the manuscript is completed do they realize that the real work begins.

This in turn is what separates the wheat from the chaff. Those who have extra reserves and buck up in the face of realizing this horror can carve out a living. Those that collapse in despair become road kill.

I work at a garden center and you’d think I’d have an outstanding yard! LOL Too many skeeters and sand gnats—we live right on the marsh. Besides, my 17 year old prunes everything with the lawnmower!!

You do know that’s BU-fort, not BO-fort?! I live real close to Beaufort, NC. Constant bone of contention around here.

We carry a product called Rozol. It’s a rat poison that’s okayed for voles. Go out in the evening and step down on the runs. The ones that are bumped back up in the am are the active ones. Dig a small hole in the active runs and drop in a few pellets of Rozol. It may take more than one app as they live in colonies. Around here, they tend to live around big pine trees, or stumps. (Southern Pine Vole)They’re getting worse every year. The local extension agent says there aren’t any. What a maroon! Try explaining to people why the mole poison they’re putting out isn’t killing the moles!! Not sure about secondary poison so if you have dogs/cats use caution.

Had a customer come in and tell me that his fruit tree died.
Questioned him. Turns out he planted it ten years ago and it never grew. More questioning. It was balled and burlapped. Tag said plant “as is.” Ten years later—the burlap was still in perfect shape. LOL The tree died because the roots couldn’t grow. Our soil is like the peat bogs of Ireland. Things don’t decompose.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo-kay, was there a secret message that I should’ve been aware of?

Didn’t you get it? It was written in invisible ink!!! LOL

Sam, my wife is a writer who has about a half dozen books under her belt and is under contract for several more. She's also ghost written several books and was an acquiring editor at a publishing house. My wife had some advantages having worked in the industry, but I'll give you some observations from living with and loving a writer.

If you don't know people in the industry or have an in with someone and you can get an agent, get one. Be warned, shop for your agent carefully. Make sure they work in the genre you're trying to get into and make sure you like them and that their style suits you. Some agents are hand-holders and back-patters, some are business only. My wife loves her agent, but rarely has contact with her outside of business dealings. She doesn't call to see how things are going or check in, she doesn't call a month before deadline to make sure everything is on schedule or read during the writing process and offer feedback. If you need that, make sure you get it.

Most unsolicited manuscripts get round-filed or are passed on to "readers" who skim manuscripts for the editors and try to pick out the ones they think have promise. Many readers are part-time or college kids and my wife has told me that if they don't like the query letter the manuscript goes in the trash without another look. As an example, when my wife was an editor the lines she was responsible for published 12 books per month. With the responsibility of overseeing and publishing 12 books per month, how many unsolicited manuscripts do you think she read? An agent can put your book in an editors's hands.

Forget about money, you won't make any initially. Unless there is a bidding war for your manuscript you'll be lucky to make enough to survive. Advances are half up front, half upon acceptance, which can mean anything from the day they receive the completed manuscript to when you complete revisions, which can be months later. Royalties are usually paid twice per year, but don't expect much unless the book is a big seller.

Most importantly, you're not crazy. I wish I could do it. If you can make a living at it (or don't have to) it's a great lifestyle, you can live anywhere, set your own schedule and, if lucky, make a nice living. My wife has known she wanted to be a writer since she was a child. If you do it for any reason other than the love of writing or because you have a burning, obsessive need to I would discourage you, but otherwise go for it.

If you or anyone else have specific questions that you think my wife could help with, just Freep mail me and I'll pass it along.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo-kay, was there a secret message that I should’ve been aware of?

Well I wanted to write something profound --- you know --- the Great American post ---

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--- but I got Writers Block (TM)