We've Come a Long Way, Baby! By Morgan Mandel

It wasn't long ago that those in the writing community looked down on self-publishing, considering it the only means less talented writers could get published. Large and small publishers made sure to propogate this notion. I suspect it was their way to stay in control and reap profits from books they hadn't written themselves.

Publishers held the cards and called the shots. Many hired readers, young twenty-somethings, to vet manuscripts. If by chance a reader thought a manuscript worthy, an actual editor would then deign to look it over. And that manuscript better be in tiptop condition, free of grammatical errors, and following specific guidelines as to format and topic, because many editors didn't have time to do full edits. So much simpler to receive an error free manuscript and set it up for production than to spend time actually editing.

Then, if a writer was fortunate enough to be among the chosen, input may or may not be allowed concerning the cover art. Even if suggestions were made by the writer, that didn't mean they'd be followed. You got your cover and you better be happy with it, unless you were a big-name author with lots of pull.

And, you wouldn't dare object to a release date as being such a long way off, even if it was almost two years away.  And if your book didn't come out on the release date, you'd have to accept that inconvenience.

Also, if you were lucky, your publisher would send in Arcs for reviews, and mail you a few Arcs so you could garner reviews as well. If you were extremely lucky, a few magazine ads might also appear publicizing your book.

The upside was if it were a large publishing house, you'd get an advance, after which if you earned it out, you'd also receive royalties. A small publisher couldn't afford to pay you an advance, but you'd get a percentage of the sales as royalties, after all the expenses were first deducted.

Seeing your book in print, being paid anything at all for writing it, no matter how miniscule the amount, still made you feel validated. You'd finally made it as an author. People were actually reading what you wrote. Some of your advance and/or royalties you gladly socked away to cover your own advertising, travel and clothes expenses for book signings and special events to get your brand known. You happily attended conferences at your own expense because it was so much fun to be finally recognized as a published author.

That was then. This is now. There are still many authors who choose to go the old-fashioned way, for a variety of reasons, but many are jumping on the self-publishing bandwagon.

Barry Eisler



Robert W Walker happily self-publishes

 Barry Eisler, a successful traditionally published author, is part of the new revolution. He's had the temerity to turn down a $500,000 offer from St. Martin's and opt for self-publishing instead. J.A. Konrath is another author who has happily  made the transition, and is reaping profits. One of our own bloggers at Acme Authors Link, Robert W. Walker, has also chosen to go the self-publishing route. If you've read any of his posts, you'll understand he's thrilled with his decision and added bankroll.



Morgan Mandel is a happy self-publisher

  Upon the advice of Austin S. Camacho, I also chose the self-publishing route. I self-published Killer Career in August, 2009. That's when self-publishing wasn't cool. Now it is, and with the emerging popularity of the kindle and Amazon.com, Killer Career is coming into its own.

 It's a heady experience to be able to choose your own cover, either by devising one yourself, or by collaborating with a skilled professional. It's wonderful to know the book of your heart can get out to the public, even if it's about something publishers consider unmarketable. Not only that, it's your decision when to get it published, either electronically, such as on kindle, which is the most popular right now, and/or in print, through such avenues as Create Space and/or Lightning Source.

 As a warning to the unwary, it's best not to get carried away with power. Don't think your manuscript is so great it doesn't need changing. You have the choice and means to provide a quality product, so don't get impatient. Take the time, make the effort and be sure to get a skilled editor to check your manuscript before you release it.


So much more is yours for the taking, if you want it to be. Yes, it requires more responsibility, but self-publishing is worth going the extra mile.

It's a brave new world out there for authors. More than ever the fate of our books and our brands are in our own hands, where it should have been all along. We've come a long way baby, and we're not going back!

Morgan Mandel

Killer Career is now 99 cents on

Kindle!

  

The Jersey Devil Unmasked -- Jeffrey Cohen Interview with Rob Walker

An Interview at the Point of a Dog –

I virtually traveled to a place of which I had skewed images of from the Sopranos TV episodes. A somewhat stark insular place just across the river from New York—another of those “new” places up in “Newland” called New Jersey where I was told I could find Jeffrey Cohen, the mystery comic novelist who had been likened to a male Janet Evanovich and a Donald Westlake and sometimes as sick as Joe Konrath and myself. I had to sit down with this guy, but it was not easy in this crowded corner of the globe to find the Edison Generator until I spotted the upside down car and the huge sign overhead reading: Does Your Car Turn Over in the Morning?

Next to the generator shop was a place that looked like a roadside diner, which meant the food inside must be great. Maybe I’d call for a beer and a Philly steak or a Jersey steak or whatever they served. I was starving. Two days on the road to get here and a bit nervous (okay giddy as a schoolgirl) over the impending moment I’d meet Jeff Cohen, author of the Double Feature Series and creator of Aaron Tucker and so many other lively and funny characters.


I pushed through the door and I immediately recognized Cohen in a corner so dark that it cut his features in half like a curtain had fallen, but his keen eyes in light and in dark were unmistakably focused on the door as if he were expecting trouble to walk in at any moment (and I did). I knew it was Cohen because he wore the only shirt I ever saw him in—and orange pullover, and he had a dog with him. It was like looking at his website all over again—his smiling picture. I immediately shook hands and asked, “They let dogs in here?”

Cohen looked as if he were slapped, then he said, “I’ll thank you not to talk about me in those terms, Walker. Oh, you mean Copper, here! They let him in, because I tell them he’s not a dog, he’s a bagel.”
“Bagel?”

“Beagle/basset,” he said.

“Great place and I love the sign outside—and the overturned car! Do all New Jersey folk have a sense of humor?”

“We have to. We’re stuck between New York City and Philadelphia. We have sports teams that play in our state and call themselves ‘The New York Giants’ and ‘The New York Jets’ We’re the Rodney Dangerfield of states.”

Jeff was having a Rolling Rock, so I joined him and ordered the house steak and salad, asking Jeff if it’d be okay that we do the interview while I stuffed my face.

“You know, Rob,” he slyly began, “there was once this guy who went into a talent agent’s office with a dog just like Copper, here. Said the dog could talk. Agent says okay, let’s hear him. The guy says to the dog, ‘who was the greatest baseball player of all time?’ Dog goes, ‘Roof!’ Guy asks, ‘what do you call the top of a house?’ Dog goes, ‘Roof!’ The talent agent throws them out of the office, and they sit dejectedly on the steps outside. A long moment goes by. Finally, the dog looks at the guy and says, ‘What’d you want me to say—DiMaggio?’”

Even the dog did a little barky laugh, and this broke the ice. So I got down to Cohen’s level and asked, “Do you know why dogs never choke on their food?”

“Heard that somewhere,” he replied, “but no, dunno. Why don’t they?”

“Because they never speak while eating.”

Neither Cohen nor his dog laughed, and the silence as thick as the rare steak plunked before me. I thank God when someone plays the jukebox and the Boss comes on! His music inspires me to push on even though Jeff Cohen looks me in the eye with cold certainty and says, “Walker, you should stay away from jokes and do characters; that’s what you do best.”

So I decided between cuts and bites of my steak to get to the questions I had hoarded away for the moment. Questions I’d held in check since my first introduction to Jeffrey Cohen’s Some Like It Hot-Buttered, the first book in the Double Feature series. It was followed by It Happened One Knife, and the third, A Night at the Operation, is just about to hit the shelves.

“Jeff, do you believe as I do that Frank Sinatra was totally miscast in Some Like it Hot? And in fact that he was totally miscast in any role he ever played in? That he was a lousy actor and should’ve stayed with the singing and lounge act?”

“The only reason I think Sinatra was miscast in Some Like It Hot is that he wasn’t in it at all. It was Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. But he was miscast in Guys and Dolls. You hire Frank Sinatra, and give all the big songs to Marlon Brando. Hollywood.”

“Hmmm…thoughtful reply. Tell you what, let’s get down to brass tacks. You have a fascinating background in film and TV work. Did your background suggest or help you to decide to write the Double Feature series?

“My background in film and TV consisted mostly of getting turned down, so yes, it was terrific practice for being a novelist. Luckily, Hot-Buttered wasn’t my first novel; it was my fourth. So I knew quite a bit about what I could do—but I wrote it anyway.”

After choking on my steak, I asked, “How did your nominations and accolades for first and second books in the series affect you both personally and professionally?

“Well personally, my wife was impressed for at least four minutes. But that’s collectively for the two nominations. Professionally, the cliché is true—it really is an honor to be nominated. Shows that people really do like what you do. I don’t discount that; it amazes me that anyone outside my immediate family reads what I write.”

“Do your characters come full-blown on the page, what I call fully realized as you write, or do you “live” with them for a time and do a lot of rewrites?
And contingent to that, are your characters based on real people or are they composites? And I promise the questions are only going to get tougher as we go.”

He actually blushed a little. “I don’t rewrite that much,” he said. “And when I do, it’s because my editor has found plot holes that I would have missed after the thirty-fourth reading. The characters just sort of emerge as I’m writing. I like to play against the expectation of the reader, so I wrote a Jewish grandfather mobster and a huge British upper-class hit man in one book. But no, outside of the circumstances of the characters in the Aaron Tucker series (Aaron had a job, a house, and a family like mine), the characters aren’t based on anybody in particular. They’re meant to fit the story and above all, not to be boring. Screenwriting taught me that. Thank you, screenwriting.”

How much of your own personality and experiences and circumstances inform your sense of humor and how do you balance humor and murder so deftly?

“Living in New Jersey creates a sense of humor, a shorthand of sarcasm that I don’t think you get anywhere else. We like to send out little test signals to people to see if they’ll pick up. One time I was making a reservation for dinner on the phone, and the young woman at the restaurant asked, ‘Can I have your name?’ Without thinking, I said, ‘I think it’s awfully unlikely,” and without a beat, she answered, ‘If I do, can I join the group for dinner?’ Jerseyans listen when people talk, and I don’t think that’s the case everywhere. Mostly, we’re trying to hear over the car engines.”

I called for another Rolling Rock to wash down the last of the steak, then asked Jeff, “You’re a frequent contributor on DorothyL readers and writer’s forum, and you maintain a website and a blog. How much time do you spend online? And how important is computer networking?”

“I do a lot of online time. For one thing, it’s a great way to avoid writing. For another, it’s the absolutely best way to publicize your work without having to pay for it. I’m lucky that I started writing novels when so much Internet mystery interest was already in place. But I only blog the one day a week; there are six (actually eight, in case someone takes a day off) other people who blog at HEY THERE’S A DEAD GUY IN THE LIVING ROOM, so we can offer perspectives from editors, publicists, agents, reviewers, booksellers, and publishers as well as from me. It’s not my blog; I’m just one day’s worth of it. The website (http://jeffcohenbooks.com/) is another story—that has more information about me than anyone, including myself, could possibly want. I love the Internet.”

“Who’re some strong influences on you and your writing, and whose books do you never miss reading currently?”

He grinned. “The strongest influences on my writing are actually screenwriters. Ernest Lehman. Larry Gelbart. Mel Brooks. Everybody who wrote for the Marx Brothers. In mystery, I read Robert B. Parker, Chris Grabenstein, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Lisa Lutz and many others I’ll be getting emails from asking why I didn’t mention them (the answer is I should have, but have a terrible memory on the spot). I just read Harlan Coben’s latest Myron Bolitar novel, which I enjoyed a lot. But when I’m writing, I read mostly non-fiction, because I’m afraid of writing in someone else’s voice unintentionally.”

Jeff’s dog has to be restrained as he has taken a morbid liking to my leg. “Whataya think of the current publishing downturn and how, in your opinion, can the publishing industry survive? Told you the questions were going up the tough scale. I stole this one from Jean Henry.”

“If I understood business, would I be a mystery author? I think the publishing industry has to survive. It may not survive in its present form, but it’ll survive as something. People will still want to read. The thing I’m most afraid of is that newspapers will die before I do. I love newspapers. And no, reading a website is NOT the same thing.”

“What has been the absolute best writing or marketing experience you’ve had in this publishing game?”

“The best writing experience never involves writing. It’s getting feedback from readers, even the ones who hate your book. It’s so gratifying to know that someone is actually responding to what you did, even if it’s in a negative way. Of course, the ones who love your books are more gratifying, but you take what you can get. Marketing? You mean besides doing this interview? I love meeting booksellers. I wish I could afford to travel more and meet the people on the front lines of the publishing biz. But I have a kid in college, and another one less than two years away. Thank dog for the Internet.”

“What has been the absolute worst writing or marketing experience you’ve had in this business (aside from being interviewed by me)?

“Being interviewed by you is a highlight. My favorite marketing story involves a “Literacy Day” celebration at a Large Box Store that will remain unnamed (Wal-Mart). I was assigned a store to go visit and read a children’s book (not mine, of course) to show off that I was literate, or something. And I called the store a few days before to make sure they knew I was on the way. Was assured beyond all question that they couldn’t wait for me to show up, and ‘a girl here is working on your publicity.’ Cool. So I show up on the appointed day. Apparently, ‘the girl’ has the day off, and nobody knows about Literacy Day until I find a representative of the distributor for the kids book I’m supposed to read. He asks if I’ve seen all the publicity. I tell him no, all I know is the girl has the day off. He says, ‘Oh, you’ve gotta see the sign.’ And he marches me over to a spot near the entrance of the store, which I must have passed on the way in, and sure enough, there’s a sign announcing that ‘New Jersey Author Jeff Cohen’ (because apparently now I’ve written a whole state) will be appearing today. And there’s a photograph. The rep asks me, “How do you like it?” I say it’s great, I love it, but there’s one slight problem—that’s a picture of someone who is not me. And here’s the scary part—he looks at the picture, looks at me, looks back at the picture, and asks, ‘Are you sure?’ That was a real lesson in humility.”

“Trust me, such stories are more the norm than the abnormal, my friend. I got a million of ‘em. But we must push on. So tell us briefly about your next hilarious novel. What’s on tap? No, no more Rolling Rock for me, but what’s on your horizon?”

“My next hilarious novel? That’s something of a leap for a Jersey self-deprecator like me. Let’s just say that A NIGHT AT THE OPERATION is, in my mind, a raising of the stakes in the Double Feature series. Elliot Freed, who owns Comedy Tonight, New Jersey’s only all-comedy movie theatre, has never gotten over his ex-wife, Dr. Sharon Simon-Freed. So when she vanishes into thin air, at the same time she’s wanted for questioning in the murder of a patient, Elliot’s world goes just a little bit crazy, and he has to rely on a support group he never knew he had.”

The dog is getting antsy, tugging at his leash and crossing his legs. Jeff rights it as I ask the final question: “Got any useful advice to novice writers other than run like hell?”

“I think that’s the best advice: If you can do something other than write for a living, you should do that. Because if you can be talked out of it, if you won’t do it whether you’re making a living or not, then you probably don’t have the tolerance for rejection you’re going to need. Other than that, read a lot, and don’t ever try to write someone else’s book unless your name is going to be under the words, ‘as told to.’”

“Jeff, you’ve been a real Jersey gentleman and terribly patient, unlike your dog who has wet my shoes. “Anything you’d like to add before we must go our separate ways?”

“Just one thing—that’s not my dog.”

“Can you quick list your web and blog sites—where we can all visit you whenever?

“I’m easily findable at http://jeffcohenbooks.com/ and the blog is at http://heydeadguy.typepad.com/heydeadguy/ . I blog on Mondays. You should read it all the other days of the week, too.”

“Thanks, Jeff, for forsaking good reading and writing time to take the time to talk to ACME Authors Link, man, from all of us at Acme.”
“It’s been a sincere and definite pleasure. Thanks for the opportunity, and no, I’m not buying you a new pair of shoes.”


Happy Reading and Writing folks

Rob Walker
http://www.robertwalkerbooks.com/

For Openers - Knock Some Socks Off by Robert "Sock'em" Walker

Most articles and books giving advice on writing spend a lot of time on the opening line, the opening paragraph, the opening page(s), or the Openers, or what in film is called the "establishing shots." Whatever you call it, you want it to "crackle" with verve and life; you want something "happening" or some sense of danger, what David Morrell calls "heat on the page."

But such advice is typically directed at the first chapter or prologue, when in fact every chapter needs be opening with a great and enticing "opening" or "establishing shot." From my work in progress take a look at these three openings for prologue, chapter one, scene two, chapter one – three all told. See how each is made to "crackle" with life. The prologue opens with dialogue—in the middle of conversation, and I think enticing conversation between conspirators, one of whom is our hero, whereas Chapter One places the reader inside the mind of a practicing witch (her point of view), and all her conversation is with herself and a doll stuck with pins. Chapter Two returns to our hero who is journeying to his dark destination to bring down a man of power, the same man of power the witch wants to harm. In Two, our hero only has his horse to talk to but again there is dialogue and movement. Something happening on every page. Finally, Chapter Three opens in the mind (POV) of our hero's object—his nemesis, the minister at Salem Village. These are the establishing shots and I hope they demonstrate how important each opening is and not simply that of your first chapter or prologue. Four examples follow:


From BLOODROT

Prologue


Boston, March 5, 1692

“You want me to go into Salem Village Parish disguised as a man of the cloth and that doesn’t offend you or your father?” Jeremiah Wakely asked, shock written across his handsome features.
“Not in the least!” Reverend Cotton Mather fired back.
“Not in the least,” parroted Jeremiah, pushing aside a shock of raven-black hair.
“Not so long as it provides us with what we need, Brother Wakley.” The two men had walked the length of the public area of the great North Church of Boston from rear pew to altar. “Look here, Jeremiah, my friend, you’ll have no problem ingratiating yourself with this Reverend Samuel Parris.”
“I am not so sure, sir? Not from what I’ve read in the court records your father provided.”
Chapter One's Opener)

Swampscott, Essex County, Massachusetts, March 6, 1692 at the midnight hour



At two-score-ten and four, the woman in tattered clothes chewed tobacco, lit a candle, shakily stood alone in the abandoned McTeagh cabin, then waddled straight for her hidden magic needles and the doll.
The doll she’d paid dearly for was fashioned by Sam Wardwell, both blacksmith and cunning man, some openly called the Wizard of Andover. Sarah had made several trips to make payments, and each time Wardwell would display the doll in its progress from wood to realism. Sarah Goode believed the man a magician.
Further, Wardwell asked no questions beyond her specifications. He kept mum, too, and never knew that his creation was in the image of Betty Parris; that it was a doll that’d do harm to Reverend Samuel Parris’ eleven-year-old, little Elizabeth Junior, named for her mother.
The doll, once stuck full with pins—as Parris’s Barbados servant, Tituba Indian, had instructed—would thereby inflict pain on the minister’s daughter; thereby inflicting suffering on the minister himself. But only if Sarah used a lock of the child’s real hair, pinned to a swath of cloth belonging to the child made into a pouch harboring the child’s nail clippings. All items Sarah had bartered from the hands of Tituba, the Barbados witch and servant to the Reverend Samuel Parris. Aside from a few pretty shells and a green bottle, all that Tituba had wanted from the bargain was that Sarah Goode eventually destroy Reverend Parris.

Chapter Two Opener:

Watch Hill, outside Salem Village, same time


Jeremiah Wakely in black riding cape reined in his pale horse and brought the gray-speckled mare to a soft trot. They rounded the base of the gravelly hill that he recognized as Watch Hill. Must be careful . . . discreet. He urged the horse now up the gentle slope beneath the moonlight. Must arrive in Salem Village without notice. “Perhaps an impossibility?” he asked the horse, leaning in to pat the animal.
As Jeremiah and his horse Dancer scaled the ancient hill, he wondered if it had not been a mistake to make this pact with Mather. Wondered if he shouldn’t ‘ve told both ministers the previous night—and in no uncertain terms that he was…what? Uncertain? “Hardly strong enough language for what ails ye tonight, eh, Wakely?” he spoke aloud to himself in the cold night air. Any moment now, he expected to see Higginson coming up the other side of this wretched hill, but so far no sign of the man.
In a pace that stirred so much emotion in Jeremy, he wondered if the Mathers, and now Higginson, had not placed their confidence in his ability to remain neutral and above the fray possible. An attitude necessary to accomplish what amounted to a conspiracy against Reverend Parris. Am I the right man for this affair? Suppose the others wrong? Suppose I’m the worst possible choice for this grim and complicated undertaking? Am I up to it?
Then there was the fear that had welled up and engorged his heart with every hoof beat bringing him closer to Salem and Serena. His mind played over this fear…played over the moment that he’d most assuredly again lay eyes on her.

Chapter Three Opener:

At the parsonage door in Salem Village, 1:20AM, March 7, 1692

Broad shouldered, a tall man, Reverend Samuel Parris felt the walls of the small parish home—his property by way of contractual agreement with his flock—closing in on him. The stairwell proved so tight that Parris could hardly make it up the narrow passage to his daughter’s room, where he looked in on little Betty, who’d been battling the a fever—symptoms of the auge so often seen in little ones. Betty slept fitfully, as if assailed by nightmares, but at least she slept. Her cousin, the Reverend’s niece, slept too but in a separate bed in the corner.
Every inch of space was accounted for and filled.
Parris slammed a balled fist into his palm and muttered, “Damn my bloody dissenting brethren.” He referred to a faction within his flock. People who resented him and begrudged him this ordinary place with its modest yard and orchard, hardly large enough for his family, hardly more than a common Barbados army barracks. Yet many– too many–begrudged him. Nearly half the village parishioners in fact, and they’d taken to withholding tithes and fees and his rate. As a result, he’d had to find other means of support.

And so it goes. I strive especially hard and do many, many, many rewrites for each opening. It behooves the author to reach out an easily reached hand to guide the reader from one place to the next, from one point of view to the next, from one time period or moment to the next, and in those "major shifts" between scenes or chapters, you have to be extra, extra careful to not lose the reader's interest and not to lose the reader himself!
Happy Writing One and All 'til next time –
Rob Walker
www.robertwalkerbooks.com

To Preach Or Not To Preach, Do You Need Ask? By Robert W. Walker

An interesting discussion arose on a chat group I am a member of regarding the author's politics and if his novels ought be politiking for him, and if said author politics ticks you off to the point of never reading said author ever in life again. My quick and dirty reply was fast in coming -- if a story or novel is a set up for me to have to SWALLOW a certain political point of view--even if I agree with it--no, I hate to see it overtaking an otherwise perfectly good story.

The key word in fiction is storytelling, not non-fiction or essaying, or telegraphing messages. While a fictional piece of work cannot but have political points of views and ideiology embedded as say within the worldviews of the various characters-- reflecting life thereby by the by, that same fictional piece better not be peopled with cardboard cutouts of supposed representative ideologies, that is characters who are simply propped up and propelled by the author's personal political views for the express purpose of pushing an agenda be it Scientology or liberalism or facism or any other sort of ism, including Christianity in my view.

The novel may have a Christian message but if the entire thing is a prop job for religion, yeah, it will turn me off and away from its author or authors. In fact anything heavy-handed in a story will do that to me or for me.

Too much historical matter that may overtake the story element that is ongoing now, too much science in a science fiction tale, too much gadgetry in a submarine WWII tale, too much pontificating, lecturing, gouging, or just plain blow-hard stuff on the part of a character who is obviously set up as the blow-hard mouthpiece for the author.

Now of course authors can and will get their digs in, and information of one sort or another favoring their worldview or politics will most surely be embedded in a novel or story, be it Hemmingway or Faulkner or Twain or me, Rob Walker, but I detest the notion that a story is built around a political rant--or any sort of rant, quite frankly. If a story illustrates, demonstrates feminism--shows me, fine, ducky, wonderful then it works. However, if another author dealing with the same subject rubs my nose in it, pushes it as a platform, TELLS me what to think, I'm gone, out of there. No thank you. Does not matter the subject. If I am involved in the lives of the characters, I care about what they care about, and that holds true for good and evil characters. If I feel their pain, not if I am forced to sit through a lecture on the childhood that lead them into goodness or into evilness.

Does it make sense? There was a lot of contention and back and forth over this issue and so am hoping to shed light on it here as I feel if you want to send a telegram use Western Union....spoken by a quite famous filmmaker to his writers once upon a time. In my estimation, there are huge differences between an Oliver Stone film than a Roger Moore film--his name's Roger, right? The docu-drama that gets me inside the heads of the characters as opposed to the documentary that does not show me a life but rather tells me how to think and perhaps react to the same subject.

Does it make sense? Whether does or nay, happy writing anyway! And oh, say, I charge HALF, half what Donald Maas and his group of "novel editors" charge you for developmental and line editing, and I do a better damn job, so there! Check out The Knife Editing Services when you're ready to go under the knife for the "book autopsy."

Rob Walker is at http://www.robertwalkerbooks.com/ - new site, new novel, new cover art!