All of us have a book inside, just
screaming to get out. Of course we do. I knew that when I started. It couldn’t
be that difficult. Two years later, after hours spent staring at a blank page,
followed by extended sessions of
relentless padding to get the word count up, numerous plot changes and the
creation of characters that came out of nowhere, I had it. Five hundred and ten pages of insightful
dialogue, my own creation. All my friends and family loved it. The most
difficult part was behind me. Getting published was inevitable, a slam
dunk.
Not quite. That was eighteen months ago,
all spent enduring the dichotomy of never-ending evaluations combined with constantly
hearing the lecture regarding the need for “shameless self promotion”. Of course you must have a website, a blog and
prepare an endless stream of submissions and query letters almost all of which
will never be acknowledged. This masochistic practice of silent appraisal
without feedback, leads to the inevitable conclusion that you have to self
publish but under no circumstances use a ‘vanity publisher’ because that will
seal your fate as a hopeless amateur. At this point confusion rules the day. You
have no opinion that is remotely close to being objective, alternating between
the fear that what you have produced is rubbish and the daydream of accepting
the academy award for best original screenplay. Quiet evenings spent
fanaticizing with your spouse about which of your favourite actors can play the
key roles in your story. Weekends searching out potential publishers and
agents, attending “how to” seminars on getting published, inevitably
emphasizing that you are really on your own in a context totally unfamiliar,
highlighting the adjective ‘self’ in that recurring, persistent theme of “shameless
self promotion”.
Perhaps my favourite low point was an hour long
presentation by one of Canada ’s
most successful literary agents. She was quite blunt setting out the rules,
including ”Don’t ever send me anything other than an e-mail query letter. I get
at least seventy five inquires a day, all by e-mail. If I don’t like what I
read in the first two lines I simply hit delete.” Then for emphasis, she stated
with obvious pride: “Incidentally I
would have rejected The Da Vinci Code”.
Now that’s encouragement. I still send her regular e-mails if for no other
reason to keep her count up. So far my most brilliant prose, my most humorous
anecdote, my most insightful analysis and my most heartfelt criticism of her
methods, have all met the same fate she would have dealt Dan Brown – Delete! Delete!
Delete!
Did you know that in this age of
computerization there are far more books being generated than ever before? With
total logic, in the face of this new flood of creativity, publishers have
abandoned any attempt to assess unsolicited manuscripts. No longer are junior staffers
assigned to look at unknowns. This is left to the few reputable literary agents
in Canada
and we all know how well that is working out.
So I went back to the drawing board. It was
time to turn to the world of freelance professionals and get a frank assessment
of the product. First stop was an evaluation by a professional editor with a
$600 price tag, premised by the statement “75% of what I evaluate is
garbage”. Now waiting for that was
tough. No-one wants to be classified as ‘garbage’ even if almost everyone else
is – passed that one somehow. By the way, did I mention that the conventional
wisdom is that a first novel should be between 80,000 and 100,000 words and 350
pages not 160,000 words and 510 pages like mine. Remember all those nights
padding the word count? Time to take those babies back out. Remember all those
brilliant explanations included to save your less attentive readers from making
incorrect assumptions- they have to go. “Remember ‘show’ the reader don’t
‘tell’ them. Let the reader discover for himself and also get serious: pick up the pace! Other than that you have something. Your
characters don’t suck. Your plot is kind of interesting.” My freelance editor
became my link to the industry, my literary personal trainer, part drill
instructor, part sister confessor, she has kicked and coddled me down the road to
self respect as an author and given me the will to put myself out there.
So now I was freshly inspired. My work was
not garbage. With a just little more effort, I might have something. Five rewrites and numerous more query letters
later, I am there, ready to self publish. So what does this really mean? Well
it means instead of having 20 photocopies of my manuscript I have spent a few
thousand dollars to acquire 500 paperback copies that look and feel like a
‘real’ book. This is certainly not
‘vanity’ publishing. Have I mentioned that after rewriting the book five times
I now hate it with newfound passion? Not
really. It’s somewhat like the way you feel about your first born after three
days of the runs and fifty diaper changes. You still love them but the ‘poop’
has got to stop.
So finally I get to shamelessly promote my
book; 99,000 words of blood, sweat and tears.
I have learned so much and I want to do more. Like many others out there
I am but a few reads away from reaching my goal. So give my book “2020
Hindsight” a try. If you like it; write e-mails, visit my website www.fcdawkins.com and read my blog ‘The Eeyore POV”. After all
the publishing world has changed more than ever, but talent can’t be suppressed.
We live in a new information society, where social media rules and the
connection between reader and writer cannot be denied. Welcome to my marketing team! Really? Quite
shameless, don’t you think?
Oh
well, that’s the Eeyore POV.
F.C.Dawkins.