Freeper Travis McGee's book, "Enemies Foreign and Domestic", goes to print!

www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com ^ | July 14, 2003 | Jeff Head

[MississippiMan]

U, your copyright is actually established the moment you create something. The registration process is merely a documentation, an official recording of that copyright. With that said, it's generally considered preferable in novels not to register the copyright before selling the book. Here's why...

The lag time in publishing, from the time you get a contract with a publisher to the time the book hits the shelves, can easily be two or three years. Backing up a bit, it can EASILY take a couple years of marketing before you make a deal with a publisher. So, if you finish a book today and register the copyright, you have a copyright date of 2003. Let's say your experience is typical, and you find an agent by mid-2004. Then you go through the required rewrites, which takes another few months. Then the agent finally makes the sale to Random House for you in early 2005. Random House takes a look at their catalog, which is planned out well in advance, and decides to bring your book to market for the fall 2006 selling season. What happens? John Q. Customer is browsing at Borders and comes across your wonderful book. He opens the book and sees a copyright date of 2003. John assumes it's an old book, he wants something ultra-fresh, and slides it back into its slot. That's a long-winded explanation, but that is indeed the reasoning as to why publishers prefer that you let them handle the copyright registration for you.

It's also VERY bad form to submit work to agents or editors with a copyright notice stamped all over it. It screams PARANOID AMATEUR. (I've done it, LOL.) The chance of someone stealing an unpublished author's work is about nil. Let me qualify this by saying that many people do recommend registering Hollywood-bound material with WGA (Writers Guild of America) before submission, because apparently a lot more shenanigans go on in that fair city and the movie industry as opposed to publishing.

Shorts aren't my forte, but I do like what you're saying about yours. It sounds quirky, edgy, and that's often a huge plus in placing shorts or any other work in today's market IMHO. As for non-fiction, that is a whole different animal and the marketing process is handled very differently. In non-fic, you typically sell the book based on a proposal, before the book itself is even written.

I've written three thrillers thus far, all of them man vs. man. Am working on a screenplay right now that has some man vs. man elements, but is predominantly man vs. nature, a huge natural disaster kind of thingy.

MM

[MississippiMan]

Best of luck to you, Travis.

MM

[Travis McGee]

Are your thrillers so timeless that you don't mind waiting, as you said above, for years to see them on the shelves? I'd be rather afraid of another 9-11 sized event making my plot rather obsolete, or conversely, of missing some event similar to that which takes place in my book's prologue, and missing the push of that wave.

I just can't imagine a thriller plot with a 3-4 year waiting-in-line time still being "fresh," unless it was fairly generic.

Recently I heard the plaintive wails of an author on local talk radio, plugging his middle eastern terrorism novel set in the future, with Saddam Hussein still in power as a key bad guy. He wrote it a few years ago, and by the time it hit the shelves, Saddam was gone. That would really bite.

[u-89]

MM,

>It screams PARANOID AMATEUR

I suppose it does but I assumed the field was extremely cut throat, no honor, all thieves so I asked. Your comments, from knowledge and experience are most welcomed though and I'll heed your advise. The date bit seems critical - hadn't looked at it that way but knowing what I do of the human psyche that old CR date on a fresh release does seem like a suicidal move for an author.

> Shorts aren't my forte, but I do like what you're saying about yours.

You don't know how encouraging that comment is. You didn't have to say anything so it comes across as genuine. It could be easy for one to impress himself with a pet project. How others react is the acid test though. Yours is my first positive feedback - in fact the only feedback and it comes at a needed time.

It seems self evident that someone would write about things that interest them but your angle has the added bonus of being a genre conducive to book and film with the subject being popular in both fields. It is wise to think of commercial reward when one devotes so much time and effort to an activity. Nothing like making money doing something one loves. How many pages do your novels run?

Thanks again,

[The Shrew]

Wow! And neither one of you guys pinged me to this! See what happens when you go on vacation?

Congratulations Travis! I'm glad you've finished it and look forward to having a copy in my hands to read!

Semper Fi!

TS

[MississippiMan]

The thriller with the agent right now is set in the semi-near future, a set of circumstances very unlikely to actually materialize within the next five to ten years. I just finished the first draft to another, and it has almost no topical element to it, a rather character-based thriller played out mostly on a small, personal stage. Thrillers with 2-4 year gestations pop out of the pipeline constantly, Travis. As for writing a specific Saddam type figure into a plot, that is IMO the ultimate in short-sightedness, as is trying to write anything that caters to current headlines. I've talked to agents who say queries that mention terrorism are almost instantly rejected without further consideration.

The bottom line for me is that I am willing to wait. I'd much rather work steadily and smartly toward a chance at big success within a proven framework, than to take a path with sales usually measured in tens and hundreds, which is what self-publishing is. Some people obviously have different goals with their writing than I, which is absolutely fine. I don't seek to spread some incredible message. I want to entertain people who enjoy reading, and I'd love to be able to make a good living at it. Others have different objectives. Great!

As I've already said, I genuinely wish you nothing but the best, but I can't count how many times I've read the same exact things by self-published authors going into the process, talk about new paradigms and such. But with the exception of cases so rare as to be the equivalent of winning the lottery, the story always turns out the same. A few dozen copies sold. Maybe a few hundred. Game over. That's reality, time after time after time after time. There will always be anomalies to point to, but when you look at the big picture, there is no new paradigm, only wishful thinking.

Let me ask you a question: How is it you plan to market your SP book? You talk about establishing a track record so that you're going to be setting terms for the publishers that come to you. Exactly how are you going to do that? If you think the chances of someone stumbling over a book on a Borders shelf are slim, what do you think the chances are of someone stumbling onto a SP book on Amazon and buying it? And remember, online sales are a tiny piece of the book-sales pie in this country. If you don't believe that, do the research. The masses still buy their books off shelves: Borders, Barnes & Noble, Wal-Mart, Sam's, Costco. That's where the numbers are sold. Other than a local manager who might put a few copies of a local author's SP on the shelf for PR purposes if the author will put them there on consignment, those places don't stock SP books. How do you plan to overcome the lack of that market, which happens to constitute the vast majority of the market?

It's easy to talk about controlling one's own destiny, but how is it you plan to do it?

Now, an area that hasn't been touched on at all: What makes you so sure your book is ready to go to market? Who vetted it? Who doled out the brutal critiques for you? What professionals looked at it and said, "This is good, Travis, but this sucks, Travis." Every author--yours truly included in the past--is sure that their book is ready, that their book is something special. But who else said so? You see, that's what's missing in self-publishing and it's why it's not taken seriously. There are no professional hurdles to jump, no vetting processes to fight through. Those processes make writers better. They toughen them, teach them to step back from their work and see it more objectively, even when it hurts. How did you handle this end of the game? Yes, a lot of crap makes it through traditional publishing channels too, but if you'll take an honest look at what's out there in SP, you'll find that 99.9% of it is utter garbage. When you join that group, that assumption will automatically attach to your work, as well, whether it's true or not.

And remember, I came into this discussion doing nothing but wishing you the best of luck. You're the one who chose to excoriate traditional publishing and lambast "Fifth Avenue" and tout a new paradigm as if you just thought it up. Believe me, you didn't. This same set of self-publishing dreams and arguments has been put forth a bazillion times out there, fueled mainly by the companies who sell self-publishing services.

MM

[MississippiMan]

I'd like to read some of your stuff, U, provided you truly don't mind candor in return. Anything else is worse than worthless to a writer--it's detrimental. I remember joining my first serious writers group, a group in which about half the writers were already published by major houses, and so proudly submitting my first piece. They ripped it to shreds. LITERALLY brought tears to my eyes. But it also changed my life as a writer. I looked at, pored over, and studied what they had to say, and realized they were right. Then I set out to become a good writer. I believe in candor. Feel free to freepmail me and we can swap e-mail addresses or something if you like.

Hey, not a THING wrong with getting paid for creative efforts. My dream is to make a good living with my writing, and of course to entertain a lot of people in the process. :-)

MM

[MississippiMan]

Forgot to answer the length question: I'm finding a comfort zone in the 75,000- to 100,000-word length. Most books from Grisham, Patterson, etc., are on that lower range, while more full-bodied thrillers tend to be at the upper. Clancy is an exception, a guy who gets away with the really long pieces now.

MM

[u-89]

I sent you a freepmail regarding post 327.

How many pages does 75-100,000 pages translate to on MS Word or in print - I know it depends on font size but just a ball park figure - what would you say, what size book are we talking?

[MississippiMan]

Using standard manuscript formatting in Word (12 point Courier, double-spaced, 1" margins), 100,000 words will typically come in at ~600 pages, which will translate to ~400 in a typical hardcover book. 75,000 around 500 Word pages or ~300 in hardcover. Ball park.

MM

[Travis McGee]

I can't wait to see your book on the shelves in 2005 or 2006.

Make sure you tell me which 60 to 90 days they they will be available, so I can find it if I hurry.

Let's compare notes in one year, and see who is closer to a major contract which is not a newbie ripoff.

[MississippiMan]

I ask you again, Travis, what's your plan? Just the basic outline? How is it you intend to bring these publishers clamoring to you?

MM