The writer in all of us

Bear with me on this one, it's a biggie.
We've been talking about how to give you guys, our faithful readers, *more* from our shared blog, and there's been a lot of back and forth about what MNaBC actually is. And the question boiled down to, at one point, ‘are we all really looking for contracts? ‘
My answer to that was no...well...yes. No. I should be. I’m not, but I am. Errr...
And it occurred to me that this, of all the things I’ve been thinking about lately, might actually be something important to share.
What does a contract – or contracts mean to me? (and the ‘me that is a writer’ in all of us)

The writer in me
A contract, for me, would be validation that I’ve not wasted my *life to date* that didn’t involve raising the kids, being a good friend, supporting other writers, learning my way as a bipolar and all of the other personality quirks I have and the myriad of adventures I’ve undergone because of the subtle blend of that list, which isn’t exhaustive.
It would be a reason to actually continue to finish, because I don’t do well with finishing and letting go. I can handle crits, but that’s because I get to go back and polish some more. I can handle writing, because I can always circumlocute the end of the story, or bury it somewhere so that I’m into the next book without noticing.
I’d be able to stop faking my joy at being unpublished, and I might – finally –get over my fear of success. I’m actually scared of being a success. I’m scared of the attention that writing might bring down on my family. I’m scared that people will think I’m just like my characters, and wonder how in the world I come up with such dark stuff without any real world experience. I’m scared I’ll discover that I don’t fit where I thought and be cast adrift again.
A contract, for me, doesn’t equal money or freedom, though I don’t doubt that they would bring some of that. And it’s true – had I chosen to deal with my fears before now, we might not be quite in *this* situation right now. We’d have been in another one, probably just as hard to work through. And I’d never be free – none of my books are singles ;).

The writer in all of us

Contracts, from what I can tell, are validation and a ‘get out of jail’ pass for those of us with people that don’t understand what it is to be a writer. It makes our work as real to others as it is to us, but at the same time, it makes the next one just as hard to get. There’s no such thing as an ‘established’ author until you have a huge following. Sure, you can show your publisher and agent that you can ‘do deadlines’, but no publisher will gamble on you – again – unless your sales have been something to write home about.
Contracts aren’t a badge that we’ve made it – instead, they’re a responsibility to do it right, and not let others in our band – fraternity – down. Because heaven forbid any of us give credence to people like James Frey – contracts ARE NOT tickets to fame.
Contracts aren’t what we are – though we go from writer, to author after publishing. Contracts might afford us that, but they aren’t what bring us there.
Our writing is.
Our writing is what should sustain us – should be what brings us our heart’s desire, and should be the all consuming passion that we thrive on. And even in our darkest times, contracts shouldn’t be our guiding light – writing should be.
So this mama says – ‘contracts are nice, but give me my writing, any day!’

(xposted to Work, back to...now?)

Writing Your Book Proposal - Part 1 (of 3)

Recently I gave a talk on writing book proposals and I thought I'd share some of the info here for all you future authors wondering where to start.

From Book Proposals That Sell by Terry Whalin: “According to a survey from the Jenkins Group Inc … 81% of Americans feel they should write a book …” and yet, only 2% of the population has ever actually written a manuscript, let alone gotten it published.

Writing fiction and non fiction is very different. At least it is for me. In fiction I feel like I can experiment, start from the middle, work my way through the story. But with non-fiction there is a lot more structure. It needs to be logical, it needs to have a straight forward plot.

Writing from word 1 through to word 50,001 may not work. You need to build a framework and then fill it in so you can be sure not to miss portions of the book or run into structuring issues.
Some things to think about AFTER the lightening strike IDEA and before you start the proposal.

To flesh out the idea before you put it on paper:

Readers very selfish, “what’s in this for me”. Publishers are also selfish, “what’s in it for me and will my customers (readers) like it.” The big question your proposal needs to answer, “will it sell”?

Why publishers like book proposals:

• You are looking for a publisher to make an investment so this is almost like asking a bank to finance a project, except you are assuming no financial risk. $50,000 per book. Sales projections are calculated so that the publisher can factor costs right down to the amount of ink needed to create the book.
• A proposal is a snapshot of the project as a whole and are used to take the book through the approval process from editorial, planning, concept, marketing meetings. All decisions are done by committee.
• Proposals show how well the author knows her subject and that she has recognized that the publisher needs to examine many different aspects of the project

Stay tuned tomorrow for some more...

Stratosphereic Mental Illness Number*

I am ignoring the big red button that says panic. That's right. I'm sitting here NOT thinking of a big red button. Try it with me.

Do NOT think of the big red button.

It does not exist.

How's that working for you?

There really isn't THAT much to panic. Just a manuscript that needs to be read and re-read and everytime I find something new to put in it and I wonder if I have everything in that it needs and I feel that NO I certainly do NOT and there must be more to find and I'm below word count anyways so let's just put that in there ... or should it go there ... or here, or what about here and I think maybe I'll make a WHOLE NEW CHAPTER but then is it duplicating info from somewhere else, do I sound like a broken record...

And lather, rinse repeat because that is what life feels like at the moment.

I am SO taking a break when this book is done. At least until I get the edits back.

*I think Joshilyn has patented the Mental Illness Number Ranking System.

What happens AFTER you get the Book Contract

Ah yes, isn't the book contract the GOAL? Yes, but, no. We talk a lot about what we need to do to get the book contract, how we need to find time to write, how we need to market ourselves, etc...

I sold my first book in August 2006. The same week my daughter was born. That's when I really started writing it.

My daughter is 20 months old and just today I had a phone call with an editor... the edits are coming back to me next week so I can make my changes.

I'm not complaining, not at all.... in fact I don't mind the work being spaced out like this. After all, I have kids and a job and other projects on the go. But it sure goes a lot slower than I thought it would when I signed on the dotted line.

When you think about advances... I got the first half of my advance when I signed my contract 20 months ago. The second half comes when the edits are finished and accepted. Hopefully within the next few months. That's TWO YEARS between paychecks.

Yep, this work isn't for the faint of heart. Virginia Woolf said "woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction" ... uh, yeah. Or nonfiction it seems!

One of the best things about my conversation with my editor today was her comments on the pictures. They were more than happy with them! Which is AWESOME because I took most of them! They also loved the illustrations... I had an awesome illustrator, too. Now I can justify those $$ spent on camera equipment.

We're going to have a book that has full colour photos and b&w illustrations... and it's going to rock. Or, as the GenYs at work say. It's going to be "off the hook".

Mama's Got a Book Contract

Well, after a month of radio silence ... I can finally announce that I've sold my second book (tentatively titled) The Green Stable to Storey.

It was an exciting process. We (meaning my agent and I) started out with a list of six publishers. She sent the proposal to them and we got five responses back in the positive, one in the negative.

From there we pretty much let the dollars fall where they may. We had a dollar figure in mind for an advance and luckily three came around the same. One had a contract clause I didn't like, so we passed on them. That left two...

It's kind of impolite to discuss the specifics. Sort of like saying to your co-worker, "so, how much do you make? Did you negotiate more holidays?" So I apologize for being vague...

But in the end I had a choice to make. One publisher was offering more, but I really had strong feelings of Like towards the other publisher. Plus there were differences in regards to the acquisition fo photos and graphs for the book.

So I chose to go with Storey and I am exceedingly happy!! I feel - down in my toenails even - that I have made the right decision.

If you'd like to be put on a mailing list for The Green Stable, please leave a comment and I'll put ya on the list!

Oh yeah, what's the book about you ask?

It's a horse owner/rider guide to environmental horsekeeping. Everything from how to build a 'green' barn to using enviro-friendly products and practices to being an earthy trail rider.

(Cross-posted at The Writing Mother)

Mama will hopefully, maybe be signing a contract soon...

I am not so sure if I mentioned it here, but this week coming up... I may have another book contract.

Actually I have one contract in my hands, I just have not signed it yet.

There's some to-and-froing between two publishers but I do believe I have made a decision. And I promise, y'all will be the first to know.

Or you all. Since I'm Canadian and really don't say y'all that much.

And let me just say POO on the Canadian/US exchange rate. Oh sure, I was all farts and giggles a few years ago when I started writing for US mags. But now I get only about 90% of what the check (or cheque) says. Grumblegrumblegrumble.