The Author's Journey

The Final Cover

July 20, 2009

The final proof of the cover arrived in my inbox this morning. Or, I think it’s the final. Any hidden agendas about the color, the finish (glossy vs. matt), the type or anything else would have appeared by now.

I am very pleased. The art director fixed the type, which was my main concern. He added a new wrinkle – some art directors just can’t stop fiddling – but it made things a little better, and definitely not worse. If I still had an ad agency I would hire this guy in a minute.

Getting the cover almost seemed like a reward for sending off the final copy edits, although the two processes aren’t connected.

I dislike dealing with copy editors so much – even when it’s for my own good – that I put off dealing with the last sixty pages for at least three weeks. The manuscript just sat there on a table. But finally I faced it, and indeed there were unpleasant problems to deal with.

I had gotten some of the dates wrong.

Every section of Fortuna has a time and date, and five of them were obviously wrong. Worse, it wasn’t obvious how to fix them. I had to carefully read each section, the section before it, and the section after it. (It’s been so long that I don’t really remember when all the events happen.)

Beyond that, the process was about accepting or rejecting capitalizations, italizations, commas and the like. The copy editor’s comments were in red ink, and I either left them or wrote “NO” with a thick blue fiber-tipped pen. The manuscript had two or three “NO’s” on almost every page. I should have enjoyed this power, I supposed, having had my work edited in ways I didn’t like for years. But in fact, I felt bad.

For some reason, the editor-in-chief wants everything to happen on paper, not “on the computer,” as she expresses it, so I had to send the only copy in the world to her via snail mail. I should probably have made a photo copy, but I didn’t want to spend the money. So I just shipped it overnight, which is the safest way. The cost: $67.00.

I am going to end up losing money on this book.

To be continued…

Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/magicmichael (Magicmichael is my twitter name.)

Read the first chapter of Fortuna right now at www.fortunathebook.com

 Note: I’m using the blog format here to post a journal I have been keeping for some time. We will catch up to the present in a few weeks.

July 1, 2009

I am perhaps a little like a combat veteran who, returned home from the wars, doesn’t do too well with loud noises. I have been so angry so many times at the way clients have re-written my copy over the years that the very hint of changing my golden words sets me on edge. Even when they’re not so golden.

And now, the copy-edited manuscript of my novel has arrived. I have talked with the president of Oceanview and she has been absolutely, positively clear that I have the final say. I can reject every change the copy editor has made.. I just write “NO.” That’s it.

And still, I can’t bring myself to open the package.

I recently had a discussion with a psychiatrist about the nature of psychosis vs. a diagnosis of some other mental condition “with psychotic features.” The difference is that with psychosis, you really believe all the people in the restaurant are  talking about you. With a condition that has psychotic features, you know that the people in the restaurant aren’t be talking about you, but you somehow get into it. I mean… even if they’re not, they could be, right?

 I know with my mind that there is nothing in the edits I can’t deal with. For that matter, I can just (metaphorically) click the “reject all” button. But I have kept putting it off.

Today I decide I can wait no longer. I fetch the slightly battered cardboard box, cut through the clear plastic tape that seals it, open the tab and extract the manuscript, which is slightly dog-eared and held together by a thick rubber band. Without really looking, I stick it into my tote and head for a nearby espresso café. I order a double cappucino, dry. I find a table. I find a blue felt-tip pen and then pull out the manuscript and set it on the table. I flip past the front matter (dedication, if wanted, etc. and start reading.

She has eliminated a three-dot ellipsis I’ve use to show a pause, and I reject that with a bold, blue “NO.” I also reject her change of “New Florins” to “new florins” with lower case instead of initial caps. I accept her deletion of a comma.

Seventy-four pages later I note that the quality of my attention is deteriorating, and I stop. I feel bad, not at all elated by the power of final say. I know what it’s like to have someone undo your work.

To be continued…

Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/magicmichael (Magicmichael is my twitter name.)

Read the first chapter of Fortuna right now at www.fortunathebook.com

 Note: I’m using the blog format here to post a journal I have been keeping for some time. We will catch up to the present in a few weeks.

May 26, 2009

The first proof of the cover arrived yesterday via an e-mail from Chris, the project manager. My first reaction: It’s a home run. George has stayed true to my original idea, and he has added exactly the element it needed to “say” high tech: an arrow-shaped cursor that’s about to click on the coin. It couldn’t be better… but one thing bothers me slightly: the coin itself.

It appears to me that it’s what’s called an FPO – an image (“for position only”) that’s not precisely what’s going to go into the final design, but close enough to get the idea across. I’m still troubled. Even in its blurry, pre-production state, the image on the coin doesn’t clearly and unambiguously say Renaissance. It could, for example, be a figure from American revolutionary times. I decide that we need to discuss this… and then it occurs to me that maybe George actually intended the pixilated look. In that case, it just doesn’t work at all. Well, that’s my opinion, and I have been very successful over the years trusting my gut.

I send an e-mail directly to George, and since it’s negative, I don’t copy anybody. We go back and forth. It turns out that he couldn’t find a high-rez (high resolution) image and was putting out the pixilated coin as a potential final look. I think: What kind of budget are we working with? In today’s market, it would only cost a few hundred dollars to shoot a coin. You just tell the photographer what you want. He/she finds the coin, and takes a simple table-top shop. In fact, I know someone really good who will do it for me for free.

But before going down that road, I do a little googling. I quickly find a high rez Florentine coin. It doesn’t feature the profile of a merchant prince like my original design. It’s a real Florin! Which is even better. I send a jpg to George as an attachment. He loves it, and in spite of its being a jpg – usually a low rez format – it’s so big that it will work.

We have a brief discussion about rights, and then we’re done. Problem solved. If the design flies with the rest of the committee, I have exactly the cover I want. But… will it work in the marketplace?

To be continued…

Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/magicmichael (Magicmichael is my twitter name.)

Read the first chapter of Fortuna right now at www.fortunathebook.com

 Note: I’m using the blog format here to post a journal I have been keeping for some time. We will catch up to the present in a few weeks.

May 18, 2009

I have crossed over a line. A friend from high school attends some sort of literary function and connects with Louise Ure, who has just published her fourth novel. My friends shares the news that I have recently sold my first novel, and Louise says, “Have him get in touch with me.” On the same day that we connect via e-mail, I get a response to another e-mail I sent a couple of weeks ago to to Lisa Unger, who has published several novels. She is apologetic about being so slow to respond. Can I call her in June when she’s finished with the initial promotion of her new book?

It dawns on me that these two women have Been There, still remember what it’s like to be a first-time author, and feel a sense of kinship. Why should I be surprised? When I was working as an advertising copywriter – not the easiest gig in the world to obtain – I always took time to help people who were starting out, looked at their work, told them where I thought they could fit in, etc. Still, I am truly grateful… but I can’t help but wonder if writers who have achieved a higher level of success – Tess Gerritsen comes to mind – will respond to my e-mails.

*   *   *

I call up Louise and she is incredibly helpful. I learn that I should absolutely join International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America. The both “do a great job” of promoting first novels. I also learn the names of the two book stores in the San Francisco Bay Area (where I live) that contribute their statistics to the New York Times best seller list. One of them is a lock for a book signing, as my agent is a close friend of the owner. The other I will have to work on.

Louise also shares the names of a couple of chat rooms I can visit. All together, I can get access to about 50,000 sets of eyeballs, to use the lingo of Web marketeers.

In my mind’s eye I see a Web-related to-do list that is getting longer and longer. Not only do I have to worry about Louise’s lists (as I have come to think of the various groups I should join) but also the chat lists associated with multi-player online gaming, not to mention the news feeds I have set up via Google alert.

It’s a lot of work. And, of course, there’s the small matter of paying the mortgage every month.

To be continued

Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/magicmichael (Magicmichael is my twitter name.)

Read the first chapter of Fortuna right now at www.fortunathebook.com

 Note: I’m using the blog format here to post a journal I have been keeping for some time. We will catch up to the present in a few weeks.

May 15, 2009

Maryglenn, who handles PR for Oceanview, has sent me a questionnaire, and of course I can’t ignore it. She asks for a synopsis of the book, mock jacket copy and elevator story (“Ah hate to use that term,” she says in her Memphis drawl when we talk.) These three are all easy. The three hundred word bio proves surprisingly difficult. No matter what I write, I don’t sound very interesting. I end with, “Stevens lives in Berkeley, California and at an undisclosed location in Second Life.” I’m not sure whether this is witty or hopelessly nerdish. Am I losing my touch?

Then there are the questions I’m beginning to hear with more frequency. Why did you write this book? Who are your favorite writers? I fear there are Right Answers to these questions, and that I don’t know what they are.

The most important one is about other books that are like Fortuna. The truth is, there are  no easy comparisons. Two years ago I could have said it’s The Digital Fortress meets The Rule of Four. Digital Fortress was an earlier Dan Brown novel about cracking a computer code. The Rule of Four was a mini best seller for one summer about a Renaissance historian, written from his son’s point of view. Not a bad match. But my PR person had never even heard of Rule of Four, so it’s back to square one. Unfortunately, this is probably the most important question of all, as the answer is what sales people will use to sell the book.

As I struggle with this, I get an unexpected call from Oceanview’s editor-in-chief. The copy editing for my manuscript is finished and it will arrive sometime next week via UPS. She goes through the mechanics of how this works in detail. I don’t pay close attention, as there is really only one question I care about. Do I get to reject the edits? When I finally get to ask, the answer is a firm yes.

The next day I get an e-mail from the copy editor herself. She will ship the manuscript via UPS on Monday. I write back, telling her I get mixed up about the various carriers, but I know that one of them won’t leave a package unless there’s a person present to sign it. You can get around that by checking a special box that says “Okay to leave without signature” (or something like that). I tell her to MAKE SURE TO CHECK THAT BOX.

She writes back: “That’s FedEx.”

To be continued…

Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/magicmichael (Magicmichael is my twitter name.)

Read the first chapter of Fortuna right now at www.fortunathebook.com

 Note: I’m using the blog format here to post a journal I have been keeping for some time. We will catch up to the present in a few weeks.

May 5, 2009.

It’s the day of the teleconference on the design of the cover. I have had a double cappuccino, made notes on what I’m going to say, and double-checked the dial-in information. I’m ready.

I join what is obviously a meeting in progress. I gather that several covers will be discussed. I am introduced to the sales rep, the head of marketing (also an owner), the PR consultant, and of course, George, the art director who will actually design the cover. It is a surprisingly intelligent group, with the plus that all of them have very distinctive voices. George produces a stream of silly suggestions. “Is there some way we could work in a catch line about losing weight in 30 days?” and so on. I respond with, “George, I have poured my heart and my very soul into this manuscript and you’re joking about it!” Everybody laughs. We are off to a good start. George is going to be great.

I put forth my view of the problem. When I talk about Fortuna, I explain, if I’m not careful, people focus on the game aspect. “Oh, I get it, kind of futuristic sci-fi.” This is precisely the impression we don’t want people to get, because it will put the book in a niche that’s both too narrow and inappropriate. The cover has to “say” thriller. I also think that it should “say” Renaissance as well. In my mock-up, I used a condensed serif face for the word Fortuna, typical thriller style, and a single, iconic image: a coin with the profile of Cosimo di Medici. It’s not unlike the presidential seal, CIA emblem or swastika in a white circle used on the covers of many spy novels. So there’s a subliminal message there that this isn’t, say, a historical novel about life in Renaissance Florence.

The catch line, “Sometimes a game isn’t really a game,” is supposed to add to the intrigue.

George immediately gets it. His first comment is, “What about adding some pixels to the coin?” This is an idea that I had. I tell him so, and I say that I would have done it but didn’t have the skill. This perhaps sounds overly flattering to him, but it’s also true.

Ideas always get pecked at in meetings like this. There is concern for the black background. The sales rep likes “bright colors.” Also, there is the issue of fingerprints, which are prominent on a black cover. What about at matte finish? Might be appropriate for this book. Could we put the image of the coin on a computer screen? Should the catch line be on the front cover? We usually don’t do that. That’s true, but… and so on and so on. I am again impressed by the intelligence of the group. These are not dumb questions.

In forty five minutes, the meeting is over. It was truly one of the best business meetings I’ve ever been in. But still, as always, when the teleconference is over I have a headache.

To be continued…

Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/magicmichael (Magicmichael is my twitter name.)

Read the first chapter of Fortuna right now at www.fortunathebook.com

 Note: I’m using the blog format here to post a journal I have been keeping for some time. We will catch up to the present in a few weeks.

A sobering conversation with the Susan Greger, Oceanview’s CEO. She calls out of the blue, returned my call after more than a week. (That is in itself a little ominous.) She opens with an apology. She was scuba diving off the coast of somewhere.

I had called primarily with a scheduling question. When will pre-publication sales be available? It has to do with the web site schedule. We sort that out. Then I ask the question that’s been on my mind for some time: What is the break-even point for the book? In other words, how many copies do we have to sell in order to cover costs.

I don’t think I should publish the number. It’s the sort of thing that most businesses would consider confidential. But I can see that my original thought – covering about half of the break-even number with San Francisco Bay Area sales, this web site and my network of friends and business contacts – cannot be successful.

We also discuss blurbs, those snippets on covers where people like Stephen King or Robin Cook say things like, “I couldn’t put it down, he’s a master of [fill in the genre blank] and so on. This is going to be a problem. Not only do I have no friends who hang in literary circles, I don’t even recognize many of the names she throws out when I ask her who the ideal candidates might be. I’m going to chat with my agent about this. Maybe she can help.

The last topic is ThrillerFest, in New York in early June. She suggests it might be a good idea for me to attend, rub shoulders with other writers and maybe make some connections that would help with the blurbs. After we talk, I go to www.thrillerfest.com to check it out. About $650 to attend the conference, $700 for the hotel, $350 for the flight, plus meals, cabs, etc. It comes out to about two thousand dollars for a couple hours of networking. I don’t think so.

Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/magicmichael (Magicmichael is my twitter name.)

Read the first chapter of Fortuna right now at www.fortunathebook.com

 Note: I’m using the blog format here to post a journal I have been keeping for some time. We will catch up to the present in a few weeks.

April 23, 2009

Today I am to meet with Linda Lee, a web designer  Nina Amir recommended when we met to discuss online publicity. I choose Ultimate Grounds café, which has unbelievably good food (croissants, muffins, slightly exotic sandwiches on baguette), strong coffee, and an atmosphere that I somehow associate with the kind of places where Jack Kerouac hung out before he hit the road. There are French posters on the walls and the whole place has a ‘fifties flavor.

She bustles in exactly at ten o’clock clutching a sketch pad and we order our drinks – a macchiato for me, a mocha for her.

The barista asks, “One shot or two?”

“One,” she says, and then turns to me. “Don’t want to get too hyper!”

She proves to be a good listener. At her request, I have directed her to some sites I like (www.outgrade.com, www.do-not-zzz.com and http://www.veer.com/ideas/typecity/land.aspx) and she queries me about exactly what  it is about them that I like. The navigation? The graphics? For Outgrabe, it’s the graphics. For veer it’s the navigation. I remark that I can’t imagine how they did it.

“Oh, it’s just window boxes,” she replies.

“Never heard of them.”

“They’re out there.”

I think: She can talk the talk. I show her my sketches for the flash animation that will precede the display of the home page. (Flash is the name of an animation technology used in web sites.) It turns out the “user” – that’s how we talk – will have to click in order to get to the home page, even though that page is an exactly duplicate of the last flash frame. I complain. Why can’t that happen without user intervention? It just can’t. “Even on that Zen site [do-not-zzz] you have to click,” she points out.

Just talking to her helps me nail down some important details about the site – like the number of navigation tabs, which of course is dependent on the number of content areas. After I’ve explained it all, she quotes a price on the spot. Based on my years of experience as a creative director, I raise it slightly. It’s better for people to get a little bit more than they expect. They will work harder, go the extra mile for you.

We start talking about timing. I feel that we shouldn’t launch until about three months before publication. I am worried about holding the interest of my readers for much longer than that. She thinks we should start sooner. I suspect that she is in part motivated by the wish to get the job booked as soon as possible. But she has a good point. I’m guilty of  “linear thinking.” The web doesn’t work that way. My blog isn’t like a serial in a newspaper. It will persist. So there will be new readers starting out all the time. They’ll probably read a post in the middle of the stream first, and then, if they like it, go back to the beginning and read through the archived posts.

Linda is an inveterate saleswoman. I have given her every imaginable signal that she’s The One. In hindsight, I probably should have told her explicitly that I wasn’t going to talk to anyone else. But I didn’t, and perhaps that’s why she trots out several other reasons to demonstrate she’s a terrific choice, all having to do with traffic. I confess, I’m impressed.

The last item on the agenda is the domain name. Have I acquired one yet? No, I haven’t. But I’m going to go for FortunaTheBook. I seriously doubt that it’s taken. She agrees. Would I like her to buy it for me? It’s only $9.95.

I agree, and I imagine that she relaxes slightly. She has made a sale. And I feel lucky.

“I’m already trying to figure out how I’m going to do that flash,” she says as we shake hands, and I believe her. What luck! Enthusiasm, knowledgeability and a great price!

April 3, 2009

Over If you have spent much time trying to figure out how to get noticed on the Web, you’ve heard of search engine optimization. SEO means designing a web site so that when people type in a term related to your book/product/business in a search engine, the link to your web site will come up on the first page of the search results. It will do well, to use techno speak, in “organic search,” as opposed to appearing amongst the “sponsored links” (on the right side of the page in Google, for example) where you have to pay in order to appear.

Copywriters hate SEO because it limits their options. Web marketeers love it, because it’s a way to link web pages more directly to numbers of hits, which is all they care about. Unfortunately, when you take good, cogent copy to an SEO consultant, what you get back, not surprisingly, is something that looks like it has been written by a computer.

SEO consultants don’t like clever headlines, puns, or any kind of wordplay, because search engines don’t get it. They do like repetition (within reason), because it helps with search engine rankings.

If you’re a writer trying to get noticed on the web, SEO is a conundrum. It can only work for you if you write badly. Luckily, SEO  isn’t really a smart approach for writers – and perhaps for anybody. For starters, it’s expensive – thousands of dollars. Beyond that, it may not work very well.

Over lunch, Nina spells out her theory about what does work. It involves, among other things, making friends with people who are interested in the same things you are via online forums, bulletin boards and the like, and then, after you’ve been hanging out a while, let them know that you’ve written a book. This is a process that takes at least six months. You don’t just crash internet forums related to your subject and let everybody know you’ve written a book that you’re just sure they’ll  love. That approach is guaranteed to alienate the whole group.

As Nina lays this out I inwardly cringe at the prospect of sitting in front of my computer for endless hours, slogging through hundreds of boring sites where people post boring one-liners and while I try to join in. I’m reminded of how I felt sitting in the auditorium at the San Francisco Writers’ Conference facing all those agents. Nina, I cannot play this game.

And then I give myself an inner pep talk. Come on. There must be a few interesting MMORPG forums out there. At least give this a try. You only have to join in if you genuinely like the people and think they’re smart.

To be continued…

Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/magicmichael (Magicmichael is my twitter name.)

Read the first chapter of Fortuna right now at www.fortunathebook.com

 Note: I’m using the blog format here to post a journal I have been keeping for some time. We will catch up to the present in a few weeks.

March 31, 2009

Flashback to the San Francisco Writers’ Conference, April 2007. An expert on online marketing is talking about his extended family. It goes something like this. “I have a nephew who’s ten, and a niece who is two. The other day I got some photos of them, and I had this realization: My nephew is the last person in my family who will ever think of photographs as something you hold in your hand and look at.” I think it was Kevin Smoker who offered this insight, although he denies it. In any case, whoever the speaker was, was right. Photos are fast becoming something you look at on your computer screen, or, more and more often, your cell phone.

This is just one example of how profoundly – and rapidly – online communication is replacing older modes. As Kevin said later on, “If you don’t have a presence online, you don’t exist.”

The corollary is, if you don’t exist, you probably won’t sell very many books.

Back in the present, I call Kevin up and ask him if he’ll take me on as a client and become my online publicist. He turns me down. He’s not doing that any more. I ask for a recommendation, and that’s how I learn about Nina Amir. He doesn’t have her contact info, but I google her name and find a web site with a telephone number.

She’s surprised that Kevin has recommended her – “He’s never done that before” – but is eager to help me, and does so immediately by recommending a web designer who will fit in my budget. It may not cost $3000 after all – although it may. I’ve yet to connect with the designer.

Nina and I agree to meet – I always like face-to-face business meetings if they’re possible – and I drive down to Los Gatos, a town at the southern tip of Silicon Valley that has the feel of an upscale shopping mall. Nina, I learn when she shows up about 20 minutes late at the restaurant where we’re having lunch, lives in a more rural setting. I immediately like her, but how much does she know about online publicity? It turns out that she knows a lot.

To be continued…

Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/magicmichael (Magicmichael is my twitter name.)

Read the first chapter of Fortuna right now at www.fortunathebook.com

 Note: I’m using the blog format here to post a journal I have been keeping for some time. We will catch up to the present in a few weeks.