Reports about the demise of book publishing are once again premature.

Traditional book acquisition is alive and well.

This despite all the free-floating anxiety and doomsday scenarios about money drying up, massive cutbacks and publishing houses closing up shop.

I know this from personal experience. I got blown out of the water by aggressive colleagues at other publishing houses who were willing to spend more – a lot more — for two recently auctioned projects.

How I just lost two big book auctions

Both proposals were submitted by Todd Shuster , a New York agent known for getting top dollar for projects that have potential – and are written by authors who aren’t necessarily brand names.

In one case we ponied up a six-figure offer for an unknown author who was writing a relationship book heralding a “new way to change the one you love.”

Great! For years marriage counselors have been telling us we can only change ourselves and must bite our lip and just accept our loved ones as they are.

Instead this book tells readers what they really want to hear: Yes, you can get more perfect partners!  And we also believed it when they said Oprah loved this author.

Closing day humiliation

On closing day, Todd listened patiently to what we could put on the table, but kindly told us never mind, he had an offer that was “at least” twice that. I couldn’t believe it. We were rebuffed, laughed out of the room, humiliated.

Dauntless, we resolved to do better next time.

A week or so later Todd held an auction for yet another new author with a terrific idea – and this time with a co-author who had a long-term reputation for pulling out New York Times best sellers.  Here was a psychological self-help book with an enticing promise: a new way to understand and escape the dark clutches of mood swings we experience throughout the year.  It had a dynamite title and a telegenic, well-connected psychiatrist author.

But once again, we lost out to another publisher who this time offered more than four times our quite handsome offer!  Jeez! What were we missing?

What happened to all the caution, prudence, and new mandatory fiscal conservatism we’d been hearing so much about?  Wasn’t the book business in financial crisis?

An irrational, emotional, unscientific profession

The reason I lost these two auctions to competitors willing to spend so much money despite the current doom and gloom is precisely why I’ve been in this business for so many years.

It’s an irrational, emotional, unscientific profession.

Those of us in the book business are both the beneficiaries and victims of an authentic passion. Editors literally fall in love with books, authors, ideas. It’s our job. I’m always prowling, scouring the print media and internet, stalking writers and creative thinkers at parties and conferences.

I still wake up every morning with acquisition anxiety.  If I don’t sign, I don’t thrive.

Houghton Mifflin’s clumsy blunder

The crisis in book publishing has been big news.  First came Houghton Mifflin’s remarkable announcement on Nov. 21st that they wouldn’t be acquiring any new books, a statement that provoked guffaws of disbelief among book publishing veterans.

“That’s like a butcher shop proclaiming it had stopped ordering fresh meat,” the New York Times wrote.

Most of us attributed this clumsy blunder to HM’s inexperienced new private equity-fund owners. There are other ways to cut spending in the book business – paper, printing, binding quantities, staff – but to stay alive you need new acquisitions.

Then came Black Wednesday

Then came Dec. 4th, now known as Black Wednesday in publishing.  Doubleday and Bantam were to be “reorganized” and folded into Random House. Broadway Books merged with Crown. Top executives were fired, with rumors of more to come.

On the same day, other big publishers weighed in with alarming news.  Simon and Schuster, Penguin, and religious publisher Thomas Nelson announced layoffs, downsizing and wage freezes.

Reality Check

So what’s going on here?  How can we reconcile big spending for new titles with massive layoffs?  Here’s my two cents.

Cutbacks & consolidation are overdue

Why should there be dozens of separate sales forces and back-office departments when far fewer can handle the same volume at less expense? Who needs 170,000 new books in 2007 and more in 2008? Some of us therefore interpret the conglomerate cutbacks as an opportunity to catch up with best practices.

Books aren’t dead, just in transition

We’re in the middle of a huge transition from print to digital publishing. It’s what the MBAs in the front offices call a “paradigm shift” (ugh.) The dinosaur book business is being dragged into the 21st century world of E-Books, the Kindle and the Sony Reader, subscription open-source periodical publication, independent self-publishing, cell-phone novels, twittering, websites, web marketing, and blogging.

The initial shock and awe has evolved to some smart experimental moves by publishers like Penguin to establish a stronger internet presence with dedicated applications for iPhone, among others, for marketing, distribution, and sales direct to reader.

Stories don’t stop, ideas keep coming

Luckily human beings are compelled to illuminate and explain their lives. Science is discovering so many new things about the brain and why people behave the way they do. Politics is a source of fascinating news, analysis, history, Bush’s end, Obama’s victory. New novelists continue to explain and inspire our society. We’re seeing more radical thinking in psychology, parenting, relationships.

People keep writing books! There’s no way to stop them and a certain small percentage are really good, important, invaluable.

Agents still sell, editors still buy

Therefore, smart and optimistic editors from all the major houses are still plunging eagerly into auctions generated by Todd Shuster at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth, Molly Glick at Foundry, Jeff Kleinman at Folio, Linda Loewenthal at David Black, and other hot agents.

Acquiring editors may occasionally panic and pay too much, goaded to unreasonable heights by the fear of losing the project, wanting to show management that they have the energy and optimism to keep that pipeline filled with potential hits.

So acquire I must. I’ll figure out how to package, digitize, twitter, and reach the reading public in one form or another.

But first I have to acquire the project, sign the deal, and have what to work with.

Attention authors: keep writing!  Because remember, always, in the beginning is The Word.

“It’s a contact sport.”

That’s how one author summed up his experience in a refreshingly frank and illuminating first-person account of what it’s really like to publish your own novel.

A minefield with roads forked in every direction

David Carnoy started out with a literary agent and high hopes for placing his novel Knife Music with a traditional publisher. But after failing to land a deal, the executive editor of CNET Reviews began to investigate the options available in self-publishing, and found “a veritable minefield with roads that forked in every direction and very few clear answers.”

In the end, Carnoy published Knife Music with Book-Surge, the Print On Demand (POD) arm of Amazon, where the novel is now #26 in the category “Medical Thrillers,” with an overall sales rank hovering around #33,000.

Carnoy learned a great deal along the way, which he’s distilled into “Self-publishing a book: 25 things you need to know” and posted in his regular column at CNET.

Hire your own book doctor

I agree with many of his opinions and observations.  For example #14: Buy as little as possible from your publishing company, where Carnoy writes, “Self-publishing outfits are in the game to make money. And since they’re probably not going to sell a lot of your books, they make money by selling you services with nice margins.”

Examples include Book-Surge, iUniverse, Xlibris and others, which all offer menus of pricy frills like book doctoring, copy-editing, and higher quality jacket designs. Other companies offer big packages of publishing services that including publicity, marketing and sales for which they charge $25,000 or more.

Instead, Carnoy recommends hiring your own book doctor, and designing your own book cover with professionals you can retain and work with directly. Good advice. In the interest of full disclosure, in Carnoy’s post, he links to this blog as well as to others, and I concur that writers have many good independent developmental editors from which to choose.

Sober advice

Carnoy gives sober advice about many details, decisions and challenges that self-publishing authors face, from setting the retail price of the book to getting it reviewed (Carnoy mentions Kirkus Discoveries, a reviewing service that charges up to $550 for a critique.)  Other issues include optimizing Amazon product pages and purchasing an ISBN number so it doesn’t remain with the self-publishing company.

The self-publishing author, Carnoy advises, must understand the difference between books that are meant for friends and family and other more ambitious work that has a larger potential audience (you hope.)  And have no illusions about quick or easy success.

A major commitment to self-promotion is necessary for success

In #18: Self-publishing is a contact sport, Carnoy acknowledges that the biggest mistake authors make is not realizing that to sell books, they have to be “relentless” self-promoters.

As I’ve said elsewhere in various of my own blog posts, self-promotion for any author requires a major commitment of time and energy to building a platform before the book is even completed.  You might be interested specifically in taking a look at “Build your author platform: 10 tips from a pro” with excellent concrete advice for writers.

I expect the authors I publish to create a website, learn to blog, build a community and social network, reach out to comment on other websites and blogs, and perhaps even seek feedback to work-in-progress by posting chapters online.

Self-published authors must do all this and more, since they don’t have the advantage of a traditional publisher’s marketing staff support.

They also need to cultivate relationships with local bookstores that will be interested in having readings if they can draw a crowd, and help them sell a significant number of books.

And don’t forget the all-important media. Self-publishing authors can contact regional radio talk and cable TV shows that are interested in a local angle. This kind of aggressive publicity, perhaps guided by a hired publicist, is responsible for the few extraordinary successes we hear about in self-publishing.

What do traditional publishers think?

I’m a great fan of self-publishing but always encourage writers to have realistic expectations, particularly when there’s no chance whatsoever that the book should be any more than a keepsake memoir for your grandchildren.

On the other hand, Lulu insiders say that around 5 percent of self-published books convert to commercial publication.  That means that after a book has reached a noticeable level of success — like 5,000-10,000 copies in retail sales, with more sales likely in the future — through the strenuous efforts of the self-promoting author, then a traditional publisher may pick up the book and republish it.

In my own experience, I recently lost an auction to McGraw-Hill for a self-published book on women’s anger that I really wanted to acquire. I’m now in the middle of signing another self-published book on the therapeutic value of memoir writing.

So this traditional publisher thinks self-publishing can be a way to do an end-run around lengthy and frustrating rejection, and create a business career-building calling card, or even, if you’re passionate and devoted and believe in your work, a successful publishing launch that reaches a level where you can get serious attention.

Nothing in the publishing process seems to provoke more conflict than designing the book jacket.

Every editor, designer, sales person and publicist in the company can have a different point of view, often causing intense turf battles, expensive start-overs, blown production schedules, and snarky rants hurled between colleagues like:

“Sure, go ahead with that pretentious Picasso rip off, but my buyer at Barnes and Noble hates the blue period and will never order a book with that jacket.”

Or: “If we don’t use that retro Boy’s Life type design I showed you, we’ll sell 20,000 copies less and kiss our year-end bonuses goodbye.”

Or: “This book will sit on the shelves if we use that cheesy drawing of the two women kick-boxing on the cliff.”

Or: “We can’t afford an original piece of art for this mid-list book that’ll only sell 5,000 copies — if we’re lucky! We have to use one of those cheap stock illustrations.”

Who’s in charge?

A jacket should truly represent the content, artistic intention, mood and style of the book. It should be beautiful and meaningful, but also have the punch, drama, and color to rivet any potential reader’s eye once they see it face-out on the shelf or table of some crowded book store.

Take a look at the covers pictured here. These are the current #1 best selling books in their respective categories on the New York Times list. What’s your opinion? Do you think any of these jackets helped the book’s success?

The lines of authority regarding directing and approving a book’s jacket tend to shift with the case-by-case politics of each situation. The numbers of participants with strident opinions in any given project, moreover, are proportionate to the size of the advance, projected sales, and budgeted net revenues.

The players

The Editor…who acquires and develops the book from scratch, maybe even inventing the book, commissioning the idea with a chosen author. Either way, the editor is the original champion and producer whose job it is to shepherd the book through the production process while maintaining the book’s integrity, and at the same time satisfying the need to sell the book. That means playing ball with the requirements and opinions of the sales, publicity, and marketing people.

The Art Director…who’s responsible for interpreting the often inarticulate and muddy-headed ideas of the editor. For example, attempted dialogue between editor and art director can regress to something like this:

Art Director: “Who’s the book for?” Editor: “Well, uh, hmmm, well there are millions of people who will just love this story as much as I do!”

Usually overworked and underpaid, a good art director can be a brilliant creative partner, but unfortunately is often handling 40 other covers at once and they’re all due next Thursday.

The Author…who probably wants complete approval over the jacket — but only a tiny percentage have the leverage to get it. Most have to settle for some kind of guaranteed “consultation,” meaning only that they get to see a nearly final proof. Nevertheless, editors want their authors to be happy and will often listen seriously to their wishes.

Hunter Thompson, for example, came in with a friend’s drawing of the leering skull we used so effectively for the original edition of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail.

Many authors have excellent ideas for what their jacket should look like, and good taste too. So as their front-line champions, editors often struggle with their colleagues to keep the author’s best ideas in currency, despite opposition from all sides.

The Agent…who can be a powerful force in the process, especially if the literary rep is one with whom the editor may want to do a lot more business in the future. Agents may not necessarily agree with the author, in fact they often have their own idiosyncratic notions of what it the cover art should be. Editors ignore these wishes at their own peril, and often have to shuttle back and forth to caucus between superstar prima donna agents and recalcitrant sales reps.

The Sales Reps…those hard-nosed denizens of the real world, who are compelled to present 60 new titles in half an hour, and are most concerned with the idiosyncratic taste of key account category buyers, like the guy at Books-A-Million who doesn’t like Garamound or any other type over 16 points. Sales reps have a frightening amount of power since you literally can’t live without their support.

The Publicity People…whose interest may be to have the author on the front cover, if she’s famous or attractive. Or the opposite if not, and then not even on the flaps. Their clients are the national TV producers, bookers at National Public Radio, columnists for the New York Times and other media. These days they also want a jacket that will reproduce well on a screen for internet blogs and websites, where more and more books are publicized.

Five tips for what an author can do to help

With all these conflicting parties stirring the pot, the actual book jacket often suffers from the compromises of consensus. So if you’re an author trying to influence the jacket design for your book, here are five tips:

1. Try not to assume that you know what’s best for the book, even if it’s true. Cultivate good relations with everyone at the company and maintain a position of modesty, humility, and cooperation.

2. Don’t bring in your 9-year-old child’s cute little pencil drawing of her horse for the cover, even if the book is about how to ride bareback Western Style. The only exceptions to this rule are genius-level kids with their own TV show.

3. Muster empathy for the sales and publicity people who may seem to be marching to a different drummer but have mutual interests to share. Keep in mind that they have to sell your book, and without their enthusiastic efforts you’ll be severely handicapped.

4. Remember that in the end, this isn’t a science and we don’t always know what ultimately sells a book. Books with less than fabulous jacket designs have become huge sellers anyway. Take a book I published, the Scarlatti Inheritance by Robert Ludlum. I thought the cover was boring and that it didn’t say anything about the book itself. Nevertheless the historical thriller was such a hit that the design was used again for subsequent titles. See it here.

5. Once the jacket is designed and chosen, put aside any regrets and do everything you can to help sell the book, including your own strenuous on-line web marketing, blogging, twittering, and other brilliant new techniques that emerge in these rapidly changing times.

 

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The Book Design Review blog has released a compelling list of favorite covers for 2008. Take a look and see what you think.

The deadline for Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail was nearly upon us and we had reserved press time at a cheap printer in Reno to rush out the book in time for Nixon’s second inauguration. (Look here for part one of this series.)

Ruby red grapefruit and a Nagra tape recorder

I was desperate and dauntless, with no manuscript in sight. So I showed up uninvited at the Seal Rock Inn, which overlooked the Pacific Ocean at the end of Geary Street in San Francisco. Armed with a case of ruby red grapefruit and ten bottles of Wild Turkey, I also lugged a monster reel-to-reel Nagra tape recorder with an 18-foot cord, and on a tight leash, my loyal dog Pushkin, a shaggy brown poorly trained standard poodle with a propensity for irrational exuberance.

I kicked Hunter’s door with my alligator cowboy boots until it opened a crack. I burst in to find Dr. Thompson in his familiar shorts, sunglasses, and long cigarette holder, stumbling over shattered pieces of furniture in a room that had evidently been the scene of a hurricane or wild encounter group, whichever came first, muttering and growling under his breath in a language I couldn’t yet understand.

We worked line-by-line until it was right

We plugged in the state-of-the-art Nagra recorder, with which he was very impressed, and sat down to talk. In contrast to the bullying tone of his letters, Hunter was gruff but gracious, at least tolerating my company. He poured himself a tumbler of Wild Turkey and began discussing how we could finish the book.

As a result of this surprisingly collaborative spirit, we wound up camped out together at the Seal Rock for the next four days. Without ever leaving the room, we talked, we yelled at each other, we rewrote the articles he’d written during the campaign, and nailed down the conclusion and climax of the book. We worked line-by-line, composing out loud, transcribing and polishing up all the new copy over and over until it was right. I asked him a lot of questions which he answered at length, and then we edited my questions out of the transcript.

The deadline loomed large

Hunter paced up and down with the microphone, scouring and shuffling through the pages and galleys on the floor, the piles of photographs, the bottles and half-finished cartons of take-out. He was frequently upset with Pushkin for scattering his papers and leaving paw prints on the photographs. Hunter later described him in the book as “a huge paranoid poodle, totally out of control when the seals started barking outside, racing around the room howling and whining, leaping up on the bed.”

The deadline loomed large and there was no telling if we would make it or not.

___________________________

Stay tuned for part three, in which disaster is averted but only temporarily.

Jump here to read Guts Ball: Editing Hunter Thompson, part one.

You might also be interested in taking a look at How Hunter Thompson Beat Back His Writer’s Block.

This hard-working writer has been on the road selling his novel The Art of Racing in the Rain since before it was a Starbucks pick for Spring 2008.

I caught up with Garth during a recent stop in here in Berkeley for the 75th public reading of his New York Times best-seller. Earlier that day, he had appeared for more than four hours at the big Book Group Expo in San Jose.

Boy, I wish every writer had Garth’s never-say-die work ethic for book promotion.

Here’s part of our conversation that took place over green pickles and stuffed cabbage at Saul’s Deli next door to the venerable Black Oak Books, where Garth would be appearing that evening.

The last time we spoke you were just beginning to market your book. Has all the effort been worth it? All the travel and readings and special self-promotion?

Yes, absolutely. I’ve been on the best-seller list in the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Denver Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle – and not one of those papers has reviewed the book. Go figure.

Why no reviews?

I wish I knew. I’d love some serious critical feedback. But it hasn’t hurt sales.

What’s been your most innovative approach to niche marketing?

One of the most unusual things I did was race as a factory driver in a SCCA event. The book is about race car driving and I’m a serious amateur myself, and managed to finish last for Mazda without crashing or hurting anyone.

I’ve also appeared at several Nascar events with a 14-page booklet I put together myself with the jacket cover, first chapter and a reader’s group guide. I’ve given away hundreds of them at races and also at vintage car shows called Concours d’Elegance — charity events with elite million dollar custom and antique cars. I’ve donated signed copies for auctions.

I haven’t seen any other authors at these events and yet it’s been very productive. The Art of Racing in the Rain is the number one “automotive best-seller” on Amazon.

How have reading groups fit into the plan?

Reading groups are great. Most have about 15 or 20 members and read the book on their own. Others send me emails asking that I phone into the group, which I’m happy to do. Others have teleconferencing or even video connections on their computers so we can all see each other. I do ask them to look at my website before we connect to avoid repetitive questions.

What was the Starbucks effect on sales?

They sold more than 60,000 copies in all their stores, so you can’t complain about that. The store readings were less successful: one that I organized in Seattle was well attended. Another in Portland wasn’t so hot, and Starbucks canceled the third.

How many copies have you sold all together?

Nielsen BookScan (which records actual retail book sales) says around 180,000. Considering that Nielsen only records about 70 percent of total sales, we figure the book has probably actually sold in the area of 250,000 copies.

Then there are translation sales. The book has been on the best-seller list for 18 weeks in South Korea, who knows why, and also on the list in Taiwan, Brazil, and Germany. 25 countries bought translation rights, from Eastern Europe to South America.

How long are you going to keep doing this?

I planned from the outset to put all my energy into promoting the book for six months. I’m almost done, and I’m anxious to get to work on my new book.

What have you learned that you can pass along to other authors trying to pump up their marketing and sales?

Take your advance and reinvest as much of it as you can. Put some aside to pay your rent and put food on the table for your family, but leave the rest on the table. It’s worth it for the sales of the book and for your long-term career as a writer.

Like they say in Las Vegas: “Let it ride.” It’s a bet on your own future.

Being called “America’s Worst Mom” after letting your 9-year-old son ride home alone on the NYC subway from Bloomingdale’s is not the usual way to get a six-figure book deal for a first time author.

Media fire storm

But when the mom in question, Lenore Skenazy, a columnist and feature writer for the New York Sun, wrote a piece about her son Izzy’s solo adventure, it created a media fire storm and an authentic viral buzz to die for.

Skenazy, who had equipped Izzy with $20, a map and a subway card, was vilified and attacked as an irresponsible, dangerous, and awful person. The response was almost universally negative. A mother from hell.

Her mail featured remarks like: “If something HAD happened to your son, you would certainly now be charged in the NY courts with child endangerment.” And “You’re giving dangerous advice and gambling with your child’s life.”

All publicity is good publicity

Nevertheless, all publicity is good publicity, and the day after her column appeared Lenore was interviewed on the TODAY show. A “parenting expert” on the show was appalled that Skenazy left her child “unsafe.” MSNBC called immediately after that, FoxNews had her on too, and in a few more days she was getting calls from reporters from Hong Kong to Israel, and also appearing on TV shows across Canada.

By the end of the week she was flown out to Los Angeles to do a segment of the Dr. Phil show called “Extreme Moms” which was so popular it ran several times over the next two weeks. Millions saw a very funny 30-minute segment with Skenazy opposed by a phalanx of “helicopter moms” who stalk their kids all day, never letting them get out of sight.

Skenazy’s advice to parents who hover? “If you never let them do it, they’re going to be blithering idiots. A child who doesn’t think he can do anything, is told he can’t, eventually, really can’t.”

Prowling for hot new projects

Meanwhile I was preparing for one of my regular acquisition trips to NYC to prowl for hot new projects. Being on the west coast is a mixed blessing for an editor, so I make a point of getting in front of quite a few agents two or three times a year and see what they have.

I wrote Molly Glick, a young literary agent I knew a little, to set up an appointment. She had just moved from the Jean Naggar agency to a more senior position at Foundry, and said, guess what, she had a great proposal that she was just this minute going out with a proposal for a book by Lenore Skenazy, the “World’s Worst Mom,” she was proud to say, called Free Range Kids.

Laugh-out-loud book proposal

I had heard of the story, and the next day got an email with a 50-page proposal attached that was the smartest, best-written, laugh-out-loud book proposal I had read in years. Molly said there were a lot of other publishers interested, that she already had a “six-figure” offer and she was going to close this up fast. I’d better get in the race with a very big number, she warned me, or I’d be left far behind.

At this point it was a Wednesday afternoon in our San Francisco offices, and the end of day in NYC. My heart beat accelerated, a small vein in my temple began to pulse, and the situation escalated immediately to code red, taking control of my life. I stopped doing anything else, made some urgent calls to my immediate team, and emailed the proposal to my boss the publisher, his boss the President, and our team marketing manager, sales director, publicity guy, and many others, including big sales honchos and national account reps at our parent company John Wiley & Son’s corporate offices in Hoboken.

To justify paying a competitive six-figure advance, I’d need to persuade literally dozens of people throughout the company that we could sell enough copies to earn out in the first year enough royalties to equal or surpass whatever other companies were going to bid.

That day I bumped into a very successful local literary agent and for feedback, pitched the idea. She didn’t hesitate, and with an agent’s typical grandiosity, said “$500K at least. Chump change for Simon and Schuster. You’re going to have to really stretch to get this one. Good luck, pal.”

Every editor wants to land the big fish

I was frankly quite nervous and worried. Every editor wants to land the big fish and I had a particular interest in advocating for a refreshing new attitude shift for parenting. Lighten up! Parents were getting too competitive, laying such a high pressure stress trip on their children, hovering, intervening, interfering, over-scheduling, pressuring. This book skewered that bubble brilliantly, and I wanted it.

Luckily, the age of miracles hasn’t passed. For the first time ever, every single person in the company who read the proposal, loved it. The managers, executives, sales, marketing and publicity people, the national account, independent, and special sales reps – it was unanimous.

With the auction breathing down our backs, key players within our behemoth publishing house (John Wiley & Sons is now a $2 billion company, the sixth largest and the oldest — 1807 — publisher in the USA) moved quickly and came up with a handsome six-figure offer that actually won the auction, which began on a Friday, and lingered over the weekend in a nerve-wracking but ultimately triumphant climax as I arrived in NYC to meet Lenore.

We had only spoken on the phone up to this point, but luckily, over lunch with her and her agent Molly, I felt an immediate affinity, as if she could be my second cousin, or daughter-in-law.

Later, I asked Lenore about her side of the process:

When did you decide to write a book based on the response to your article?

Almost immediately. But whenever the idea came up I dismissed it because almost everyone was saying what a bad mother I was and how I should be arrested, or at least run out of town. Oh God, I said to myself. Do I have the stomach to take this? I don’t want to be the whipping girl, and hated and reviled.

And even though a lot of people are on my side, a lot of people really think I deserve a dead child.

How did you get an agent?

I wrote up all my ideas, kind of incoherently, and started taking them to agents. Seven of them – yes, seven – and was about to give up on the idea again, but not because none of them would take it on. Six said they would (and I keep gloating to myself about the seventh).

But none of them got what I wanted this to be. I’ve never thought of it as just a plain old parenting book. I saw it – improbably enough – as The Feminine Mystique for children meets Dave Barry. Fun and serious and wild and forceful and controversial.

Then I met Molly, who understood perfectly. She was recommended to me by a publisher who had contacted me after the initial article and was interested in getting me to write a book. That was very helpful to me, but she didn’t get the book after all, as you know, and the rest is now.

Dream author

Wiley has decided to get the book out quickly so we’re on a compressed schedule of 90 days to write the book and four months from then to publication in the early Spring of ‘09.

Lenore is a dream to work with. She’s already done six chapters which we’re shooting back and forth across the country via email attachments with tracked changes. We’re averaging three drafts per chapter and hope to beat the deadline of Jan. 1, 2009. So watch for the book in late April, and for Lenore herself to hit the national media again in early May.

The secret to getting more up-front money is persuading your publisher to project higher book sales. Every publisher I know has an internal “advance offer calculation” process, based on a formula for estimating first year sales, revenues, and royalties.

The formula for book advances

It’s not a shot-in-the-dark but a scientific data dump that projects a precise number, based on (total first year unit sales) x (retail price) x (royalty rate) = first year author earnings = advance offered.

So let’s say an agent sends me your dynamite proposal or manuscript. I love it enough to circulate the proposal throughout the company and now everyone loves it. Yes, this still happens on a regular basis. How do you think all those new books get published every year? There were 17,000 new titles in 2007 alone.

And in each case the publisher has to decide how much of an advance against earnings to offer the prospective author.

Department heads weigh in

Since I need approvals from a large team of financial, sales, marketing, and publicity department heads in order to offer a deal for a book, I meet with and persuade more than a dozen people to get their support and commitment to specific numbers.

Ahead of those meetings, I prepare complex profit and loss spread sheets, based on projected advance book orders, alternative pricing, first printing, formats, and royalty rates, plus tip sheets about the book, the market, key sales points, and most importantly the author platform and track record.

Then, in large committee rooms sometimes teleconferenced to key outposts around the country, we poll specific sales reps for major national and independent accounts and require a commitment to a specific numbers of estimated sales.

Hard-nosed feedback

This is when I hear hard-nosed feedback like, “We can get 2500 copies into Barnes & Noble nationwide if we can guarantee this author will be on the Today show,” and “Borders is hurting, so this might be a skip or maybe 400 copies with enough publicity buzz, or how about a good review,” or “Wal-Mart will take 20,000 of this if we drop the price to $6.95.”

And this is when publicity and marketing execs ask me, “Show us that DVD again of the author on Dr. Phil, or is it the local PTA, whatever, we want to see how she can do on her feet without a script. Is she authentic? Is she passionate? How big is her blog, her email list? How many copies did Nielsen’s BookScan say she sold of her last book?”

One by one, around the table and over the live call-in conference lines, everyone makes a conservative estimate. After furious adding and subtracting, the final numbers emerge: Let’s say a total of 54,235 total units projected at $24.95 and an average royalty of 12% retail comes to exactly $162,379.59 first year earnings to the author and that’s my offer: a straight $160K.

Competitive bidding

There may be no one else interested in this book, but more likely there’s a competitive best-offer or round-robin offer, with a short deadline and blind numbers coming in from other bidders with no way of knowing how many or how much. It’s a nerve wracking experience.

But given this formulaic process, what can an author or agent do to jack up the number of projected sales and get the biggest possible advance? The bottom line is that publishers want to know what authors can do to sell the book on their own.

What you can do to negotiate a higher advance

1. Be a celebrity ~ Tina Fey just got upwards of $6 million for an unspecified humor book. Incredible, yes? That’s an exceptional figure by any stretch, but if you can claim a measure of celebrity status in your particular field, it can help boost your own advance.

2. Be honest and smart about your platform ~ Be sure to have that web site up and working, and a blog posting going out at least two or three times a week, before your book goes out for sale.

3. Tell the publisher how many names you’ve captured for own your email list ~ We know that a certain percentage of any blast to a personal email list will buy the book, and they’ll add in those numbers to their total units sold first year.

4. Tell us how many email lists you’re going to purchase yourself ~ These are not very expensive, and they’re key for ongoing email blasts. Publishers know that these lists work and are delighted to keep adding in more units. I know an author who sent out two million emails for his first book and it worked so well he’s committed to sending seven million the next time around. If you get the right lists for your book’s market, it can definitely pump up those numbers.

5. Commit to hiring your own publicity professional or web site marketing specialist ~ Every successful author I know these days has their own publicity and marketing people to fill in all the gaps left by conventional publishing efforts. Publishers will increase their projections when they hear you’re planning on this, so do this for at least a few months before and after pub date, and further, if all goes well.

6. Sell a chapter from your book to a respected periodical ~ That proves your work is already recognized and that it has a real market. For fiction there are many excellent literary journals. They may not have a huge circulation but publishers respect their taste and judgment. For non-fiction it depends on your topic, but there are good magazines and journals in every field.

7. Include a DVD in your proposal ~ Whether it’s you on a big network show or at the local Kiwanis, we want to see who you are and how you present. In one case, a first-time author sent me a home video her husband took of her full-face, just talking into the camera. She was so telegenic and persuasive that we doubled our numbers and paid her a larger advance.

8. Get endorsements from recognizable names ~ Go for published authors, respectable experts, folks with good affiliations and credentials. Sure there’s a lot of mutual back-scratching in the blurbs business, but it really does work to have an outside quotation, publishers do want them, and it affects their estimated numbers.

9. Meet the editors, sales and publicity people ~ Offer to come into our offices, especially when your dollar expectations are high. Making the human connection can greatly strengthen your case. As an editor, I sometimes bring an author in to meet with key decision-makers on my team.

Remember: It’s all about the numbers, but by being an active self-marketer, you can influence what are really seat-of-the-pants projections based on subjective impressions and relationships.

“There are definite advantages for me operating in Manhattan. I can visit editors at their offices and schmooze over lunch,” says top literary agent Nat Sobel.

“It’s terrific. Two or three days a week, I’m talking to an editor about projects I’ve already sold them and are now in publication, or new projects I’m pitching that I think might interest them.”

New York agents have more access

“An agent from California comes into town two, maybe three times a year,” Sobel said. “There’s no way they can have my kind of intimacy with an editor over the years, nor can they know about all the new, up-and-coming editors and what they’re looking for.”

Nat Sobel, an agent with 40 years in the book business, represents literary giants Joseph Wambaugh, James Ellroy, and Richard Russo, among many others.

Prior to launching the Sobel-Weber Literary Agency with his wife Judith in 1977, Nat was for ten years Vice-President and Marketing Director of the Grove Press during its groundbreaking years of legal struggles to publish Lady Chatterley’s Lover, the Tropic of Cancer, and Evergreen Review.

I visited Nat last week while on one of my own periodic trips to Manhattan, where a growing sense of chaos, fear and uncertainty was palpable in the world of book publishing. Some of my colleagues read aloud from an article in New York Magazine, an inflammatory doomsday scenario called “The End” which reported that “The book business as we know it will not be living happily ever after…sales stagnating, CEO heads rolling, big-name authors playing musical chairs…”

Still turned on by the hunt

Inside Nat’s elegant Grammercy Park brownstone, however, all was serene. I found him reading earnestly in his office, surrounded by piles of manuscripts, an agent of the old school who’s still turned on by the hunt for the new writer he can champion with an authentic passion in the tough, competitive world of today’s book biz.

What do you look for in a writer?

“A story teller, a stylist, someone who doesn’t try the same old thing but plays a wild card, a writer who can grab me by the throat with the first sentence, the first paragraph, so I can’t stop reading, I have to keep turning those pages, and above all a writer who can surprise me.”

There are dozens, hundreds of agents in New York. How do you stand out from the crowd?

Well I do have a track record after so many years. I try to sell only projects I feel genuinely passionate about, that’s a luxury I can afford myself these days. And when I’m working on something very special that I want to sell for six or seven figures, I always have a messenger deliver a hard copy of the book. You know, real paper? A manuscript with ink on it that you can hold in your hands? That’s so unusual in these days of digital electronics that it helps a project really stand out from the crowd. Editors love it; it gets their attention.

What are the books and writers you’re most proud to have represented?

That’s a tough question, but I’d have to say F.X. Toole’s Million Dollar Baby, which Clint Eastwood made into a terrific film; Poachers, the great and famous story collection by Tom Franklin, Richard Russo’s wonderful second novel The Risk Pool, T.J. English’s non-fiction book Havana Nocturne about the Meyer Lansky mob in pre-Castro Cuba, and here’s something new: James Ellroy has a terrific novel coming out next fall called Blood’s a Rover. He wrote L.A. Confidential and Black Dahlia.

Also, Joseph Wambaugh is a hugely successful writer I’ve worked with for a long time, and of course the great English artist, Ralph Steadman. Ralph’s Gonzo style has influenced so many young illustrators. I see work that looks like his all over the place, but he’s still unique , and no one else can really do what he does. What an imagination, what a line!

________

Before I left, Nat showed me Spinal Beauty, a collection of autobiographical sketches based on a short piece he discovered in a small literary journal written by a young doctor about secretly falling in love with his patient.

I loved it immediately and hope to be a player in Sobel’s auction for the book that closes in ten days, so wish me luck.

________

Look here for Nat Sobel’s advice on choosing an agent.

Q : Why is the first line so important?

A : Agents and acquiring editors will quit reading if your opening sentence doesn’t zing. Any writer seeking publication or the devoted attention of a reader browsing in a bookstore needs to craft that first sentence, revising, revising, revising, until it just hums.

One way to prepare for this is to read your own favorite first lines. Here are a couple of mine, followed by 6 suggestions for what makes a good first sentence.

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.

“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.” (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson) Talk about ominous, edgy, hallucinogenic – this one, which first appeared in 1971, has become the rallying cry of several subsequent generations of young men in search of an identity. The prince of Gonzo was proud of this sentence, one of the few he wrote quickly and easily.

“Call me Ishmael.“ (Moby Dick by Herman Melville) Another muscular attention riveter, since 1851. The power is in the use of the second person, direct address: “Yo! Reader! Call me by my name. And it’s Ishmael! Not Ahab! I’m telling this story…”

What makes a good first line? 6 tips

Here are a few ideas:

1. Get to the point

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.

Don’t hope that readers will stay with you while you set the scene or deliver an “information dump” prior to getting started on the real stuff. “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.” (Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, 1955) is a great example of skipping right to the essential passion, the bottom line.

2. Lead to something

The job of the first sentence is to compel you to read the next one. Look at this opener: “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.” (The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925) “OK,” one responds. What was it? What’s your story?

3. Shock and awe

They shoot the white girl first.

Stop us dead in our tracks with fear, distress, dismay. Like “They shoot the white girl first.” (Paradise by Toni Morrison, 1998) Wow. What an awful image. What’s going on? What caused this horrible thing to happen?

4. Give us an attitude

Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.

This can be obvious, like “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” (Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, 1951)

Or it can be more subtle, as in “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.” (Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, 1925) There’s just a trace of defiance and opposition to expectations, but oh so powerful.

5. Be controversial

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Readers are still debating whether “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” (Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, 1877, translated by Constance Garnett) is totally brilliant or completely wrong, just the opposite, and deliberately so, once you read the book itself. Perhaps Tolstoy really meant unhappy families are all alike and every happy family is happy in its own way.

6. Don’t always avoid the cliché

Sometimes they work ironically. Many people say “It was a dark and stormy night…” (Paul Clifford by Victorian novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, 1830) is a joke, but I’ve always felt pulled in to read more. The problem may have been that these were actually only the first few words of a much longer sentence which inspired the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest to celebrate the worst examples of extravagantly overwritten opening lines.

The original sentence was “It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”

Phew. Now that sentence needs an editor.

But consider how long the basic image has lasted, with some help from Snoopy.

What are some of your favorite first sentences?

“I’m eager to discover writers who aren’t famous yet but will be,” says San Francisco-based literary agent Elise Proulx.

“My mission is to promote literature and make some money for deserving authors,” said Proulx, whose five tips for unpublished writers appear below. “My specialty is both high quality fiction and what I call “pragmatic nonfiction”, meaning books that are useful and prescriptive, like good parenting books,” added Proulx, an associate at the venerable Frederick Hill Bonnie Nadell Literary Agency.

Titles Proulx has handled recently include I am Death by Gary Amdahl, Anxious Pleasures by Lance Olsen, Writing Through Darkness by Elizabeth Schaefer and due out in October, Twins 101 by Khanh-Van Le-Bucklin, MD.

Last month we interviewed Sandy Dijkstra, the superstar big-bucks agent whose business is always booming. Elise offers a different perspective:

How’s business these days?

It’s tough. Publishers tell me a lot of the formerly successful categories that I love aren’t selling, like literary crime fiction, but other categories are — like YA, young adult. So one of my best literary writers has just written a terrific YA that I’m almost ready to go out with.

Are you looking for new writers?

Yes, definitely. At this point I don’t get big mass market best-selling writers beating down my door, so I’m looking for writers who are just hitting their stride and ready to jump up on the lists. It still happens.

What do you offer aspiring authors?

I’m willing to take on unpublished, up-and-coming clients and help them develop their manuscripts, draft after draft. I’m also very dogged about ignoring a few rounds of rejections. I won’t give up after 7 editors have said “no thanks.” I only take on books I really believe in.

Do you want a query letter or will you accept a full proposal or manuscript?

I’d love to see the first few pages if it’s a novel, but I do want a query letter first. No full proposals or full manuscripts, please.

What do you tell your authors about marketing their books?

I recommend hiring an outside publicist and I encourage authors to establish a strong presence on the web, including blogging to their readers

Are you discouraged by the state of the book business today ?

Oh no. Definitely not. I love my authors and their books, and I’m passionate about selling them to publishers. It’s wonderful when you see good stuff getting out there and read by large audiences.

Some people say the book is dead. Do you think people will stop reading?

Absolutely not. I’m the Executive Director of Litquake, the big San Francisco organization that creates dozens of events where writers can read their work to thousands of avid readers. We pack big halls all over the Bay Area and we’re spreading to New York with a huge festival in October. Our Porchlight story-telling series has Jonathan Ames, Amber Tamblyn, April Sinclair, and others reading.

I see this as an extension of my work as an agent to promote good writers to book lovers. As we say at Litquake, we have “heart, guts, and a taste for the wilder side of the literary world.”

Elise’s tips for aspiring and unpublished writers

1. Your query letter should be three or four paragraphs long and only the last one should be about you. Hint…if you’re still “falling in love with literature” in Jr. High by the second paragraph, an agent probably isn’t going to read any further.

2. If your query letter gets a response from an agent, be prepared to send in a completed novel or full nonfiction proposal – and not just the kernel of an idea.

3. Find a writers group or a free-lance editor who can give you some real criticism. Don’t rely on relatives to edit your book!

4. Read a lot. Not just the classics, but what’s selling now. Don’t only compare your work to Virginia Woolf, the Catcher in the Rye, or Great Gatsby. Position your book on a contemporary shelf.

5. Go shopping! Buy books! Part of learning to be a good writer is committing the bucks to buying what you like. It’s an educational exercise. I’m always amazed that the publishing industry is in trouble when there are so many people who want to be writers and so many good books out there to buy and read.

Reach Elise at: elise_hillnadell@sbcglobal.net
Frederick Hill Bonnie Nadell Literary Agency
1842 Union Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
415 -921-2910

News flash (12/08):

We’ve received word from Elise that she’s left the literary agency business. We’re very sad to see her go and wish her good fortune in all her endeavors. All of her authors will be absorbed and represented now by Bonnie Nadell at the Frederick Hill Bonnie Nadell Literary Agency.

Meanwhile, we’re leaving up this post so writers may still benefit from Elise’s good advice.

Alan

By Contributor Lisa Haneberg ~ I wobbled into the Kennewick, Washington, Barnes & Noble after a 300 mile motorcycle ride from Boise, Idaho. This was to be my 30th and last signing on a 9,400 mile solo motorcycle cross-country publicity tour for my book Two Weeks to a Breakthrough, and most of the earlier appearances had gone well.

Shellie, the store’s event coordinator, greeted me with a smile as I downed a couple of in-house espressos to mentally prepare for the event.

All indications were good. Shellie told me there had been articles in two local papers. She had set up a table chock full of my books and had taped up several posters about the 6 pm reading.

As I sat down, I heard Megan, the customer service clerk, make several announcements that went something like this:

“Good afternoon, Barnes & Noble customers. We have a special treat for you today. Author Lisa Haneberg will be talking about and signing her latest book, Two Weeks to a Breakthrough, at 6 pm. This is Lisa’s fifth book and we’re lucky to have her stop here while on her 10,000-mile book tour that she is doing by motorcycle. Would you like to zoom toward your goals in 14 days or less? Join Lisa Haneberg at the table right in front of the Young Adult section at 6 pm.”

Other than botching the pronunciation of my last name, Megan did a great job and announced the event every 5 to 10 minutes as the time for the reading approached. I wondered if people had figured out that I was the person to whom she was referring because my yellow motorcycle helmet and matching jacket were hard to miss.

These signings can be nerve wracking because you never know who will show up. In my hometown of Seattle, I can pre-populate the audience with friends to avoid embarrassment, but I didn’t know anyone in Kennewick.

At 6 pm the store was flooded with customers, many of whom were looking in the Young Adult and neighboring Science Fiction sections. As Megan announced the reading, shoppers glanced in my direction. I smiled at those who walked by.

I stood in front of the large table decorated with books, signs, long green skirting, and my bright yellow motorcycle helmet. There was no mistaking that this was a book signing and I was the author.

I wondered… Are people afraid of real live authors, perhaps fearing that they’re filled with pent up anger from staring at a computer screen all day?

I took out a pad of paper to write notes. I thought people might be more interested if they thought I was writing something, like seeing street artists paint or musicians play in the subway stations. I paused, put the pen tip to my lip like I was thinking of something profound and then wrote a few words. The fine folks in Kennewick did not seem impressed.

At 6:10 pm the store was busy but I seemed to have had an impenetrable magic bubble around me. I checked to make sure I didn’t smell because I had just finished a long ride on my motorcycle and it was a hot day. Other than a few bugs splattered on my black jeans, I didn’t think I was offensive.

“Good evening, Barnes & Noble customers. You might have noticed a lonely woman behind the customer service kiosk. Her name is Lisa Haneberg and she’s here to talk about her book, and she’d love it if someone would come up to the table to chat. As an incentive, we’ll give a Mocha Raspberry Frappuccino to the first person to walk up and talk to her.”

I stood at my table looking like I was waiting for something to happen or someone who might never come. The yellow of my helmet and jacket had become a lighthouse keeping passing readers away from danger. But Megan was persistent.

“Attention shoppers. We need your help. We have this author in from Seattle and she’s desperate for people to talk to. Do you see her in the center of the store? She’s wearing black and trying to act cool. You don’t have to buy a book. Heck, you don’t even need to be interested in her book. We just can’t bear to watch her fail so miserably and would like to offer a coupon for $500 off liposuction from the clinic across the street and a free cactus plant from The Green Thumb to anyone who will visit Lori Hamstrung at the table directly behind the customer service kiosk.”

The only customer who actually made eye contact with me was a young boy about eight years old. He told his mom he liked my helmet. She nodded and pushed him along. I have a contagious disease after all, I decided. It’s called author-selling-books-behind-a-table-itis and it is very dangerous.

By 6:45 pm I was planning my exit strategy. I wondered whether I could slink out unnoticed. I did not want to talk to the bookstore employees and, at that point, I didn’t want to talk to customers, either.

I don’t need no stinking readers, I told myself in a moment of strange reverse rationalization.

At 6:55 pm I collected my things and checked my Blackberry—no new messages. The last stanza of the T.S. Eliot poem, The Hollow Men went through my mind:

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper

As I headed out of the store, I imagined that people were looking at me and that I had soiled underpants. The walk of shame.

The tragic irony of the situation was that my book is all about how to succeed.

________

5 lessons learned about book signings

1. Go where the energy is

When I started planning the book tour, I sent an email to 80 of my blog readers and asked them if they would help me arrange and promote events in their hometowns. Each time I got a positive response, I put a red pin on the map where the person lived. I determined my route based on my readers who had signed on to help — not according to some preconceived list of cities where I thought I ought to go.

Editors and agents often tout the importance of a good platform, and this is one place it comes in handy – to populate book tour events. I didn’t know anyone in Kennewick, but in contrast was blessed with a wonderful volunteer in Fargo, North Dakota, who arranged three successful events that brought in an audience of 150 attendees.

2. Embrace “B” cities

My best events were in places that don’t get a lot of big name authors on tour like Fargo, Milwaukee, Brookings, Birmingham, Baltimore and Boise. If you’re not James Patterson, Nora Roberts, or David Sedaris, you might find that you’ll get a warmer and larger reception in cities beyond New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. You can be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.

3. Don’t rely on bookstores and libraries to promote your event

I found that press releases (sent to local media outlets), volunteer networking, blog posts and email campaigns helped to bolster attendance. You can pay someone or use volunteers to help you distribute local press releases. Unfortunately, I failed to do any promotions for the Kennewick event other than emailing the press release to the local newspapers.

4. Give the media something to spin

It helps if you can offer a newsworthy tagline for your book tour. My choice to ride my motorcycle 9,400 miles was newsworthy in some cities. The fact that I was a biker chick was interesting to some people.

5. Don’t let failure stop you

My Kennewick book signing was a disaster, but we’re all bound to experience a couple of bad events during our writing careers.

_____________

Lisa Haneberg is a Seattle-based management consultant. Her next book, Hip and Sage, is for mature professionals in the workplace, and is due out in Spring 2009.

Stop worrying about getting published and concentrate on getting better.

That was some of the sage advice the celebrated novelist offered writers at a literary seminar last week in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

“Focus on the work itself and not on what may or may not eventually happen to it,” Robbins said. “If the work is good enough, it’ll take care of itself.”

A rare opportunity

The event was a rare opportunity for writers to meet face-to-face with the usually reclusive author of the classics Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Skinny Legs and All.

Sponsored by the Authors’ Sala, an extended group of ex-pat writers living in San Miguel, the three-day Summer Literary Festival was devoted specifically to reading and discussing Tom’s novel Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates.

Boom dada

Tom and I worked together in the early 1980’s on his novel Jitterbug Perfume and I persuaded him to visit this beautiful hilly cobblestoned Spanish colonial town 170 miles northwest of Mexico City.

We’re both over 65 now, but I was delighted to find Tom still full of devilish charm, with a keen eye for the ladies.

“Boom dada, Boom dada,” he chanted happily, observing local women sashaying down the sidewalks as we drove through town.

“Not everyone can move like that, you know.”

Candid about his own creative process

In an on-stage interview, several hundred writers heard Tom describe how he started the book with only a few core ideas and some characters he wanted to explore: a charming CIA agent, a tribe of Andean Indians who strapped boards on their babies heads to shape them into pyramids, an adventurer who hitched a ride across the desert with a band of Bedouins who refused to stop and explore the alluring smell of oranges emanating from a walled oasis.

Robbins completed the book 39 months later, but it was published without a definitive ending.

“I didn’t want the book to end in a climactic resolution,” Robbins said. “It’s a never-ending story. You have to get the raft out of the water but you can still hear the next rapids down stream.”

Robbins was exceptionally candid about his own creative process, comparing his work to down-hill skiing or river-rafting without a life jacket. He doesn’t start out with an outline. “But I have some tools in my backpack to draw on before I just let go and see where the gravity takes me.”

Tom feted by locals playing characters from Fierce Invalids. That’s Susan Page, director of Authors’ Sala, as the nun Domino, with Switters in the Panama hat. Yep, they love Tom Robbins in San Miguel.

Metaphors that illuminate

Irony and metaphor are the key tools in Robbins’ kit. He says he rewrites a passage 40 times and I believe him.You read Tom Robbins for his incredibly funny, surprising and inspiring language, especially his metaphors, which go beyond communication to illumination, to a vision of truth that transcends realism.

“Metaphors have the capacity to heat up a scene and eternalize an image,” Robbins said, “to lift a line of prose out of the mundane mire of mere fictional reportage and lodge it in the luminous honeycomb of the collective psyche.”

The rest of Tom’s advice to writers

I’ve never heard a great author give more generous and pragmatic advice about how to write better. Here’s the rest of his list:

• Challenge every single sentence; challenge it for lucidity, accuracy, originality, and cadence. If it doesn’t meet the challenge, work on it until it does.
• Remember that language is not the frosting, it’s the cake. Rhythmical language and vivid imagery possess a power of effect that is independent from content.
• Don’t talk about it – you’ll talk it away. Let the ideas flow from your mind to the page without exposing them to air. Especially hot air.
• If you don’t actually like to write, love to write, feel driven and compelled to write — then you’re probably better off abandoning your ambition in favor of a more legitimate career.
• Never be afraid to make a fool of yourself. The furthest out you can go is the best place to be (but pushing the envelope has to come naturally, you can’t force it.)
• Always compare yourself to the best. Even if you never measure up, it can’t help but make you better.
• Write every day without fail, even if it’s only for half an hour, even if you’re savagely hung over and your grandmother has just fallen out of a third-story window.
• Above all, have a good time. If you aren’t enjoying writing it, you can hardly expect someone else to enjoy reading it.

Or as a parrot in Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates says frequently throughout the book:

“Peeple of zee wurl, relax!”

___________________

Photographs © by Cheryl Rinzler — all rights reserved

The most productive writers I’ve known develop skills and techniques that carry them through episodes of writer’s block, procrastination, and loss of focus. Writing is an art, a craft and a discipline. It takes a lot of energy and creativity to work all alone for the most part, to overcome bumps in the road and keep getting to the bottom of another page.

Take a look at some of the writing habits of Norman Mailer, Tom Robbins and other notable authors, and see if any of these might also work for you.

1. Take notes ~ Norman Mailer always carried a little notebook. I’d see him at parties or on the streets of Manhattan or Provincetown muttering to himself, reading something, talking earnestly to someone and he’d whip out a very small spiral bound notebook and write something down.

I took Claude Brown to visit Norman once and he spotted the little notebook. From then on, Claude always carried one too. In fact at Claude’s funeral, they put one of his notebooks in his hand to hold before closing the casket.

2. Rewrite 40 times ~ Tom Robbins says he does that and I believe him. When he was writing Jitterbug Perfume he’d read me passages out loud to see how it sounded, then go back and write it again. I’ve never met a writer who spent more time polishing his metaphors.

3. Listen to music ~ Garth Stein played the Beastie Boys album In the Grooves and also R.E.M. while he was writing his new best seller, The Art of Racing in the Rain. “I couldn’t listen to the Beatles because I’d just want to sing along.”

4. Research ~ Robert Ludlum read voraciously into voluminous volumes on World War Two before he wrote his first book The Scarlatti Inheritance, and found the historical verisimilitude to create believable fantasies about huge Nazi conspiracies that tried to conquer the world.

5. Use a tape recorder ~ Hunter Thompson famously taped sections of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail and Curse of Lono, as I’ve described here. The trick is to take the transcriptions and edit, edit, edit.

Hunter had another idea that helped him write, which was to type out The Great Gatsby, start to finish, one word at a time, so he could “know how it felt to write like that.”

6. Go to the woods ~ Michael Gurian has a cabin a few miles from his home. It’s quiet, peaceful, no TV or phone. Lots of writers travel far to find this kind of solitude, but he’s lucky it’s nearby.

7. Imagine the deaths of your enemies ~ Herbert Gold, a dear friend and a prolific writer, still going strong at 84, left this message on my phone about how he faces the blank page each day:

“I look around desperately,
Imagine the deaths of my enemies,
Bless my children,
Sit at my ancient Royal typewriter,
Play kitten on the keys
Hope something happens
And oh yes -
Sometimes I drink a cup of coffee and take a pee.”

What’s it like for a writer to work at the elbow of legendary filmmaker George Lucas?

For the answer, I turned to my son Jonathan, an executive editor and writer at LucasBooks.

He’s worked closely with the boss and other staff for the past seven years to write and produce dozens of titles related to the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films, including beautiful coffee table books on the art and technique, the history and making of each film, novelizations and other books.

LucasBooks is riding high at the moment with five books on the New York Times bestseller lists in hardcover fiction, children and young adult – each based on the new animated film and upcoming TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The meticulously timed rollout of the books to coincide with the film’s release practically guarantees an avalanche of sales for LucasBooks, the publishing imprint of Lucas Licensing, a Lucasfilm company.

For Jonathan, a lifelong cinema fan, writing books like The Making of Star Wars – The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film, The Art of Star Wars – Revenge of the Sith, The Making of Star Wars – Revenge of the Sith, and The Complete Making of Indiana Jones is a perfect fit.

I reached Jonathan at home, and we talked about his work at LucasBooks.

What are you working on now?

George and I just finished a huge project called Frames that has 1,416 full page high-resolution color stills from all the Star Wars films in six leather-bound 11×22 inch volumes, one per film, packaged in a beautiful wooden box.

It’s the ultimate collector’s edition, with only 1,138 printed in a limited edition for $4,000 each.

What’s it like working with George Lucas?

He drops his guard once he gets to know you, tells jokes all the time, and is very nice, very relaxed.

We sat for hours at Skywalker Ranch together with Mike Blanchard from postproduction, working on Frames, going through every film shot by shot.

It was meticulous hard work, but fascinating to hear his stories and memories about how each film was made.

What’s the process of writing about the making of a Lucas film?

It depends on the film. For Revenge of the Sith, I traveled with George and the crew as they shot in Australia, England, and the visual effects in California.

I was able to observe the interactions between George and the actors, how they worked together, and then I also interviewed several of the actors.

At first I kept a distance but gradually I wound up sitting at George’s elbow as he directed the actors and later for the animatics – the addition of visual effects and computer animation during postproduction.

What can you tell us about the book ‘The Making of Star Wars – The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film’?

Since the film was made in 1977, writing this book was a really big research job. There were boxes of draft scripts, special effects sketches, character notes and photographs to go through and I was lucky to discover a cache of old interviews with the actors and crew made during the shoot.

How do you decide what to include and what to leave out?

I try to get more than I need to start with and then just tell the story. As the narrative takes on a life of its own, it’s easier to see what I really need and what can be deleted.

Like Fred Astaire said: “Get it ‘til it’s perfect, then cut two minutes.”

What’s it like editing other writers for LucasBooks?

Well I’m lucky to work with several Lucasfilm staff who write with expertise and sophistication. But I also work with free-lance novelizers – writers who have to learn the ropes of creating new stories for Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

I edit all of our writers very carefully though I’ve asked a couple to read George Orwell’s essay Politics and the English Language.

Orwell’s advice is to choose words that are simple and direct, and do not use prepackaged sentences.

How’s the book business from your perspective?

Never better. We have a large core market of loyal fans. Adults who grew up with Star Wars buy the big non-fiction books and younger kids, mostly boys, go for the novelizations. We also do occasional “princess” books for girls.

We package the books according to our own high standards and are having no trouble persuading our book publishers and distributors – including Random House, Scholastic, Dorling Kindersley, Chronicle Books, Palace Press, and Abrams, to give us more pages, larger formats, better printing, and higher prices. We, like a lot of the entertainment business, seem to be depression-proof.

Knock on wood.

Business is booming at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. Eleven new major book deals nailed down and that was while Sandy was vacationing in Europe.

So look out, now that she’s back!

Widely considered the most powerful agent on the West Coast, Dijkstra has been called “tough” and “abrasive” with a keen nose for new talent.

A passionate fighter for her authors

I’ve been on the other side of the table from Sandy during some tough negotiations and I can tell you she’s a passionate fighter for her authors. She knows the ins and outs of every contract. She perseveres, she’s relentless, and she walks away with top dollar for her clients.

One thing is certain: when I get a submission from Sandy Dijkstra, I sit up and pay attention.

The agency, based in Del Mar, California, represents more than 250 writers. Its deep bench of blockbuster best-selling authors includes:

• Amy Tan Joy Luck Club; Saving Fish from Drowning
• Lisa See Peony in Love; On Gold Mountain
• Joel Greenblatt The Little Book that Beats the Market
• Chalmers Johnson Blowback; Nemesis
  
• Susan Faludi Backlash
• Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Mistress of Spices
• Irv Yalom Staring at the Sun
• Maxine Hong Kingston Woman Warrior
• Stephen Prothero Religious Literacy
  
  

What Sandy thinks about publishing today

What can we learn about the state of the book business from a top literary agent? I reached Sandy by phone at her offices in the beach town of Del Mar, just north of San Diego.

How’s business?

Absolutely terrific. I just got back from a two month vacation in Europe and found that the three wonderful young agents who work for me had sold eleven major projects while I was gone. Eleven new contracts.

‘I should go away more often,’ I told them.

These were deals for new authors just starting out, for older established authors, for five and six figure advances, some with two or three titles in the contract, fabulous projects at major commercial publishers. So my people are happy, optimistic about selling more books, passionate about what they do. And that’s the future for us!

There’s quite a bit of doom and gloom in the book business this year, as publishers report declining unit sales and profits. How has this affected your operation as an agent?

Well after 25 years in the business, I know that plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. The more things change the more they are the same.

I’ve seen this cycle before. We don’t really know what’s going to happen and personally I don’t believe this doom or gloom is going to last. I can see the bigger picture. The truth is that we’re in an economic recession, real estate is suffering, the price of gas is awful, there’s less discretionary income around.

But what do we really know about the future? Well, we know that baby boomers need larger type books, that’s for sure. We know younger people still love to read but are buying fewer books.

So what we have to do is understand, to meet and grow with these young people, and figure out how to sell them ideas and information they want.

What do you tell your authors about marketing their books?

I tell our authors that they can’t stop working on their book after the first act, after finishing the manuscript and signing the contract. I say they have to go on to the second act or there won’t be any third.

We want our authors to know that they themselves are the first and best advocate for selling the book, and we their agents are the second.

We can try to persuade the publisher to pay attention to the book and do all the conventional things they’ve been doing for years in the national broadcast and print media. But we know that they have a narrow window of concentration. It’s hard to get their attention. A few weeks after publication, they’re on to the next season, the next list of books. So we tell authors to have limited expectations of their publishers.

It’s really up to us – the author and the agent – to keep the book visible, to continue and expand the marketing, to hire a publicist when appropriate, especially to invest in web-based internet marketing.

How important is web marketing?

I agree with my colleague Steve Kasdin (former marketing executive with Harcourt Brace, now marketing Amazon’s Kindle to book publishers) that authors and agents have a tremendous opportunity now to control marketing direct to readers by going on the internet, building interactive web sites, and blogging.

Some publishers, like Penguin and Random House, support author web sites and blogs, but it’s still up to the author and agent to keep pushing on this, with the help of professional tech design and web-marketing specialists for hire.

I’ve been recommending Fauzia-Burke Associates, for example, and there are many others.

What are you most excited about now and for the future?

You’re going to be hearing a lot about the San Francisco Opera’s World Premiere of The Bonesetter’s Daughter on September 13th. Amy Tan wrote the libretto based on her novel. Stewart Wallace has written a score with western and Chinese music. It’s going to be fabulous.

I’m also excited by what Irv Yalom is doing now. You know he’s been a psychiatrist and professor at Stanford Medical School for decades, writing nonfiction and novels, books for professionals and for lay readers, big New York Times bestsellers like Love’s Executioner, international bestsellers like When Nietzsche Wept, and The Gift of Therapy.

All of his books are having new editions all over the world. His new book about overcoming the terror of death called Staring at the Sun is a bestseller in Germany, France, Greece, Brazil, Israel, Norway, and Sweden, When Nietzsche Wept has been made into a movie that’s soon to be released, he’s starting in on a new novel.

What an inspiration!

Many successful books are written by ghost writers, co-authors, and other, often uncredited, collaborators.

If I sign up an author who’s a highly regarded expert in the field but not a professional writer, I bring in a ghost who’s a pro at getting under someone else’s skin and producing a seamless work in the author’s voice.

It’s the way a lot of books get published

Here’s an example: For our parenting list at Jossey-Bass, I wanted to do a book on the emotional problems of undergraduate college students.

At the time, there were serious headline-making problems on college campuses: increased suicide, stress and anxiety, alcohol and drug abuse, eating disorders, sexual harassment and worse.

Finding the best brand

We knew the best brand for a book like this would be Harvard College, which had been having big problems on campus. So we got in touch with Dr. Richard Kadison, an esteemed psychiatrist who was also Director of Harvard’s Mental Health Services.

Dr. Kadison turned out to be a terrific guy – passionate, deeply worried, mission driven and eager to help produce a book that could make a difference and help parents and undergraduates recognize their problems and handle the symptoms before it was too late.

A busy man and not a writer

The problem was, however, that Dr. Kadison was a busy man and not really a writer. So I brought one of our established co-writers, Theresa DiGeronimo and put together a contract.

We three talked through each chapter. Theresa would send me a draft, which I’d edit, and then request revisions. This was our process, back and forth. The book, College of the Overwhelmed was ultimately a success in cloth and in paperback. Theresa has written eight books for us like this on various subjects over the past fourteen years.

On another occasion, one of our best-selling marriage and relationship authors decided to write a new version of his basic book for an emerging market of military families.

Since he was too busy with research, workshops, and trainings to take off any time, we hired an excellent ghost author who captured his voice and content in a narrative that has sold very well ever since, more than earning out the substantial advance we paid both of them for the job.

Other co-author and ghost arrangements occur when an agent or author offers the publisher a proposal where a celebrity or non-writing expert with a good idea or a great platform has a book worth publishing.

Does it matter to the reader?

Ghost writing, co-authoring, and other forms of ad hoc collaboration are common and time-honored traditions in publishing. Does it matter to the reader who actually wrote the book if the ideas are inspiring, useful and the text well-written?

Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts on this.

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Illustration courtesy of Sue Beatrice