This is mainly addressed to those of you (Eve and CalMeacham, I’m looking your way) who have actually written books and got them published. I was wondering what the whole process is like. Did you set out to write a book at first, or did it grow out of something else? What did you do for research?
Basically, I’m just kind of interested in hearing your personal experiences, not so much a general process. And by all means, feel free to plug your books here.
Well, fiction and nonfiction are two entirely different things (at least, they SHOULD be). I can only write about a subject I’m really excited about—I’ll never make real money from my books, so why do something I don’t enjoy?
First: never spend any money till you have a publisher interested (too many books are non-starters). Hammer out a good proposal, send it off (after tracking down the right people at the right publisher to send it to). I never use agents—I think they are Satan’s Spokesmodels—but others differ on that. For a biography, you have to spend a fortune on research, photos, interviews, books, etc. Get a chapter-by-chapter skeleton of the person’s life pinned up in front of your desk so you can keep the “plot” in mind as you work.
It’s hard work, but a lot of fun—to me, at least—and when you finally get your first copy of the book, you can hug it and dance up and down doing little Happy Jigs.
Any more specific questions?
Waterj2:
I’m flatter that you’d ask.
I started out researching what I thought would be a magazine article. Actually, I’d been collecting material on it for many years. When I sat down and saw what I had and how radically different my interpretations were from those that had preceded me, I decided to write a book. (Actually, it wasn’t until letters I’d written to the journals Science and Nature were rejected that I decided to try and set it all down in one work.)
Eve is absolutely right – write a book proposal. If you don’t know how there are many books out there that will tell you how to write one. (I wonder what a book proposal on writing book proposals would look like? The ultimate self-referential document.) The Book Proposal really “sells” your book. It tells your prospective customer what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it. Writing this also helps set these things down in YOUR mind, which is a good thing. Yiou also tell your prospective publisher who’s going to buy this book, and why. Publishers are in business, after all, and they want to sell books, not propagate knowledge. That the two things happen at the same time is a wonderful coincidence.
My experience in writing proposals for my business helped A LOT here.
Eve has much more experience than I. I foolishly tried to find an agent. After a lot of rejections I realized that no agent was going to touch my book, so I hunkered down and started sending the proposal to publishers. I sent one to Oxford University Press because they had published another book on astronomical explanations of religion/mythology (“The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries” by David Ulansey, a book I heartily recommend) and because they have a reputation for publishing the work of unpublished authors.
Finally, make sure you have written something that grabs and keeps the attention of your audience, all the while supplying useful info. Eve’s style in her book “Anna Held” is much more subdued than in her postings here, but her light touch comes through, and her work is well-researched.
I was lucky that my wife read the initial manuscript. She told me that “No one is going to read this. It reads like a thesis.” She was right. I tossed it out and rewrote it from scratch. I’ve heard that sort of story before. It sounds melodramatic and concocted, but I swear in my case it is true. I hadn’t been entirely happy with that first version, and my wife’s critique confirmed my fears. I really did rewrite the whole damned thing. I liked it a lot more when I was finished. More important, so did the reviewers Oxford University Press sent my manuscript off to. If you can find a painfully honest critic, keep them, even if you have to marry them.
Eve,
Yeah, I was talking about nonfiction. Writing a nonfiction book has always struck me as an absolutely incredible undertaking, but only recently have I started wondering about what it actually involves, and trying to consider it as an actual human undertaking, rather than just manna from heaven.
I’ve been thinking that someday writing a book would be a great thing to do, if I could ever focus on a single subject. So I’ve been doing things like reading footnotes and such to get an idea of the sort of research involved (of course, I look at The Power Broker by Robert Caro and lose all hope). So I figured I’d solicit some first hand experiences. As for specific questions, what sort of timeframe are we talking here? Did you have to shut yourself away from society for several years (like Proust), or were you actually able to maintain a real life throughout?
Oh, and do you have pictures of yourself doing little Happy Jigs?
Waterj2:
I wrote on “evenings and weekends”, the familiar haunt of the amateur writer. I’m told Stephen Coontz wrote “Flight of the Intruder” that way. This will take a lot of time. Writing is a profoundly anti-social activity. But you can still have a real life and day job.
Eve:
A question. How long does it take before your reviews come in? The publicity folks at OUP seem to be excited about Medusa, and they’ve sent out the review copies long ago. Since then, nary a peep. The silence is deafening. The last time I heard a review of my stuff was when they were deciding whether or not to publish the book.
A plea:
If anyone has read my book, please,please,please send something in to Amazon.com . There hasn’t even been a response there. I’d appreciate an honest review by someone who has read the book. (I may yet regret saying that.)
That sounds like pretty good advice.
Does anybody have any experience writing childrens books or comics/graphic novels?
Cal, thanks a lot for your insight. I figure I’m still several years from even the proposal step, but I’ll look into that a bit.
“Eve’s style in her book “Anna Held” is much more subdued than in her postings here, but her light touch comes through, and her work is well-researched.”
—Ooooh, thank you, dear (blushing prettily).
One big tip-ONLY write about a subject you can stay happily obsessed with for a year or two! Otherwise you will find yourself very bored and resentful and doing anything to avoid turning that computer on.
My books take about two years, door-to-door (from initial proposal to handing in the re-edited galleys). A lot of people take YEARS to write books, but I don’t consider myself that heavy or serious a writer. I do pop-culture fluff (though I must state that I LIKE pop-culture fluff!)
I also do most of my writing on weekends, vacations and evenings (I need a pay-the-rent job, like 99% of all authors!). I do my best writing at night . . . But I can do some of it without really thinking, as my notes are so detailed that I can sometimes just copy my notes, then go back later to polish it up.
As far as reviews, Cal, let’s see . . . UKY sent “Anna” galleys off to magazines and newspapers in, I think, late April, and reviews started dribbling in around June or July (some still come in from the boondocks). About 10% of the pubs who got it reviewed it (I am happy to note it has only gotten ONE bad review, and that from a bitter, jealous old queen!).
Waiter! A saucer of milk for Miss Eve, please.
It’s incredibly damn frustrating to see what the editors do to your work. How they change things you thought on for weeks, that you thought were pretty clever, because it is considered “too awkward” or “too ambiguous”.
But nice when you get the free copies in the mail.
I’m incredibly lucky. My editors snipped very little – there were big chunks I thought would bite the dust at the editor’s hands, but they survived to the printed edition. One of the few things they cut was my description of the Fates as “otherworldly superbeings who ruled the length of the lives of mortals. (It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.)” They thought that last line was a little flip.
I ll send mine to a publisher before I leave for the UK…
heaven help me! I must be nuts… my book is a pharce…
actually it is an online diary but many people told me it was good, so I guess that made me go crazy and think I might at least try to get it published…
has anybody here gotten greetingcards published?
How do I get them to notice me?
dodgy
Pffffffbbbbbbbt.
If you disagree with your editor about a change or suggestion, try talking to him/her about it. Most of us cave in immediately if we see that the writer firmly believes that the original version was superior. Final argument: it’s YOUR fucking name on the cover, not the editor’s.
Incidentally, Cal, I agree with your editor…I don’t know the context, but that line IS too saucy for a serious book.
I meant farce… I wish the edit function worked grrrr
Oh, I forgot – the OP said I could plug.
Look up http://www.MedusaMystery.com
Uke: You should see what they kept IN.
I thought I’d add something from the fiction side.
What it like to write a book? Like writing a short story – only it takes longer. You have to get used to pacing yourself; the instinct is to wrap things up. But a book is more expansive, so you can go off on tangents if you want.
The key, I’ve found, is to write a good starting chapter that sets up a interesting situation. Worry about solving the problem later.
I’ve found it’s much more fun to write fiction. But that’s probably just me… I’ve got Universes Galore bouncing around my head, so it’s always easier to put that on paper than events that have already happened.
On the other hand, nonfiction, when done right (and, admittedly, it’s often difficult to do right) is INCREDIBLY fascinating. Eve, Cal, I haven’t read your books (didn’t even know you wrote any!) but I’ll rectify that post-haste.
And then I’ll go to Amazon.com and give lots and lots of praise.
I’m writing a book…It started out as a short story but I loved the characters so I kept writing. It sort of just flowed without a main plot for about 80 pages, just characterization.
Then I had an epiphany one night, and scribbled out the plot. I have about 270 pages now, with maybe 100 to go.
I write whenever the urge hits, no schedule. It helps to plan out the plot ahead of time.
I don’t know if I will ever try to have it published, but I do think it’s very good, especially in some parts. But who knows?
Good luck to all the other writers out there! 
I have a non fiction book 99% finished but I had a fight with the publisher (dunno about him but I think if he offers a contract, then it shouldn’t take a year to send it ). I haven’t finished it and found another publisher because I just find it too plain depressing to do the interviews it needs. It’s a book on pregnancy loss and since the birth of my second live baby, I have moved on. I invested years of my life in that book but I can’t see it ever coming up to the head of the To Do list.
I’ve got a YA fiction book co-written with my partner due out in February. I don’t know if our relationship would withstand another joint effort but we are snarling about an idea I had recently. My SO has 13 children’s books published. We had the book launch from hell the other week - the publishers sent a box of the wrong book to the bookshop where the launch was and it turned out there were no copies of the launching book in the country!
It’s tough to actually put bum on seat and write. Tougher still to make a living from writing, especially you are not interested in tutoring or running workshops.
Is it wrong of me that the first thought to flit through my head was, “Truman Capote reviewed Eve’s book?”