So you've written a book, now what?

[Rodney Mills]

30 odd years ago, I had an idea for a novel. For a while all the talk on public*Radio, here in the States, was about external fertilization of male sperm with female eggs then implanting the results into a female carrier.* While not a new event it was creating broad public opinions, pro and con.

I lived in Los Angeles, Calif. In 1975. I was driving to work, and I got to thinking, what if scientists had been working for generations on creating human*life set in the future and without human aid and it was a success. I imagine all sorts of things, at first, what if it was evil, but the more I thought about*that, I concluded it had been flogged to death, from Frankenstein*to Godzilla.* What if it was the most perfect being?*

Then when I got home after work I started to think, what would make it perfect?* First thing I thought was it should be neither male or female, why lose fifty percent of the readers.* Ok. it's neutral, Next was nobody would want to hang around to find out what It would grow up to be. Ok. Accelerate infant to adult growth, the deceleration*for its productive*years and acceleration through its non-productive last years. And it was immune from disease and comprehension*of bad or evil. And my list of favorable differences*grew from there.* I decided on a name.* Alphari, from alpha meaning the first.* So, from these concepts* Alphari took shape and the most perfect being had been*created by humans.

I'll cut to the chase, The US president had the opportunity*to introduce the earth-shattering news to the world and accept it for personal accolades and to rescue his flagging*voter favorability. Most of the population were thrilled, depending on their particular self-interests. Religion was against it, was man playing God, did it have a soul, etc.* The military was for it, they could have realistic*wargames, business was all for a perfect low-cost worker etc. and so on down the line.

*Alphari, now an adult. leaves the scientific area it had been raised in, and the chase is on.

I had spent 18 months or so, after work, writing (pecking away with two fingers) and my first wife was not a happy camper, she never liked the idea that I read a lot and don't watch TV with her, and now went into my office, a small room formed by taking half the two car garage away..."You are always pecking away no time for me? etc."

The most wonderful words I typed was "The End."* Now what do I do with a 500 to 600 double spaced and Inch and a half margin, manuscript pages?

I got introduced to an agent.* I gave him an outline of the story and he made an appointment*to come to my house and skip through the novel.* He came, he skipped through the manuscript and then sat down for a drink with my wife and I.* He told me it wouldn't be easy, and I wouldn't. make a killing as it would be a first novel by an unpublished author.* My wife asked him how much money he thought*I would get.* He told her probably around a hundred k, not much more.* She gasped and almost fainted, that would be $420,300. 00 in today's dollars. Suddenly I was forgiven for all my hours in my office.

It didn't work out with him, but I did get an agent.* She told me I had to write a story outline of no more than ten pages.* She was Jane Jordan*Browne, of Browne Literary Agency (insisting I remember*the e on her name, I assumed that was to separate her from the common herd of Browns). Then she made me cut it to 2 pages then to one small paragraph. and finally, one sentence i.e., " True love found and lost in the Deep South." "Gone with the Wind" a thousand-page novel.* She said, "If this paragraph interests*movie producers; they may stretch their imagination and interest to two pages".* The two pages prese are also to interested publishers. So brutally cut out any redundant*information and tighten and shift certain chapter*around, this entailed two rewrites until she said I had it done but warned me that an accepting publishers' editors would probably make*"suggestions" for shift and changes before it went to print.

Publishers do not even open what they assume is a 500-page unsolicited manuscript from an unpublished writer Your two pagers, if it passes the smell test, your agent will send the ten-to-fifteen-page story*outline or precis of your masterpiece. It would be passed onto different levels of readers, if that's passed then they accept a manuscript and again if that is acceptable it is passed up the chain this with comments as to*how much has to be rearranged, cut, rewritten to make it marketable.* If it's loads, you get a thank you very much, but no thanks.* Cost and potential profit is what is considered not art, plus an author's plans for other novels. that's what interest them. They are not interest in a one trick pony, it's all about money. Sometimes, if it's a well written piece, you will get a minimal, first edition printing. And they say, "If it's got legs, we'll run with it." Meaning if it sold, they would run a second edition.

Anyway, my agent got me a two-year option from Samal Production (Hollywood) for $10,000.00, that's about $45,000.00 today and I got another $5,000.00 ($15,200.00 in today's money) less my agents 10% commission.* I had to put together the first two pages of a movie script, an outline of the story and the last two screenplay pages, that's for the producers to attract investors. from that I got to write a first draft screen play.* and I was warned my story would go through many changes before the final shooting script was done on the squib in Variety, I was accepted into Membership into the Writers Guild of America West and allowed to put that information on future treatments and screenplays. That's primarily for movies and TV. There's another guild in New York, Writers Guild*of America East that deals primarily with stage craft. That led to a first draft screenplay.* My agent had given me two scripts written by two of her clients, so I could read them and learn how to write screenplay and visually, no thinking by the audience is allowed, they can think later, it's entertainment and visual.* I made a big sign "VISUAL" and hung it over my typewriter.

I got an acceptance letter from Popular Press publishers with the notification that a first run printing would commence with the first day of film shooting. But Samul Productions couldn't arrange the financing and that was that the dream of walking on stage at the Acadamy Awards. for an Oscar for best writer of a screen play went down the toilet.

I met some interesting movie people and phonies too and I wouldn't swap it for quids.* I went to a dinner party and sat next to Fay Rae and had a long chat with her.* In case you don't know the name, she was the Oscar winning female star who was the female lead in "King Kong". She was up in years but still beautiful and charming to boot. I got a mention in Variety, magazine, the bible of the movie industry, I still have the clippings. After the Variety print came out, I had about a dozen females called me at work, asking if I could*get them an audition for a part in "my move", and that they would be "very grateful".* I have no idea how they found out where I worked. I just directed them to the producers.

*The working movie title would be changed to "Project*Birth". "More sexier baby" in Hollywood English. The proposed director was to be Ray Denton, he was always a second lead in loads of "B" cowboy and Indian movies during the late 1940s and early 50s, and he was a stone jerk. He came to the pre-production meetings with a different but great looking 18year*old female gazing adoringly at him and stroking his sleeve, while silently praying for a part in a movie and fame I guess, in one meeting he said the writer is nothing, the director is the creator.* So, I reached into my briefcase and took out about half an inch of blank pages and handed it to him. He said, "What's this for?" I told him. "This is your next movie. Create!"* It sort of went downhill between us from there.

I enjoyed writing screenplays. It's tough though. A typical screenplay*runs between 100 and125 pages max with wide*margins and is double spaced. "Gone with Wind" screenplay was an exception*300 pages and the book 1000.* Film running time was 221 minutes*and the average movie tells a story in an hour and thirty minutes or less.* You have to write a one- or two-page outline that tells the story, plots and dialogues and grabs the reader, the producer, to want your script and will pay for it, it's tough.* I wrote two other scripts, one was about a female who seeks and gets revenge on five guys who had raped her, the third one was titled "Kabul."* It was about the first Afghan war with the Brits, when 16,000 Brits and Indians vacated Kabul and only one Brit. arrived on*India's*border, the rest killed or captured going*through the Khyber Pass.* I had quite a few nibbles on that one but no takers.* As for "Project birth." it was stillborn, the producers couldn't get financed.* But at least I made a few bucks and then I had multiple-choice offers to transfer up in the company chain and chose to go to Iran and open an industrial catering company, which I did, and it was successful then "Comes the revolution" and that ended that chapter in my life too but*led to New York and CEO of the company and that completely*ended my writing career.* However, Alfred Lord Tennyson*said*it best in his poem "In Memoriam." "Tis better to have loved and lost than never loved at all."

If you want to try your hand at writing, first outline*your story to no more than two pages, then cut it down to one page and that's the back page of the cover of your book and ask yourself. "Would I pick this up in the bookstore and pay $20 for this?"* Are there twists and turns to the story?* My five years in ship's kitchens from Tramp, Cargo Passenger Ships, to Liners". is not going to grab the publisher, who probably gets 5 unsolicited manuscripts a day and a publishing house print a hundred or so novels a year, of which 90% are written by regular published authors under contract.* It's impossible to read endless unsolicited*manuscripts. So mostly they would politely tell you they are*not interested and if you want your manuscript returned send them post money, otherwise they would be forced to dump it.
**
Publishers don't often open the package if it's unsolicited in case one of their authors writes something similar and they publish it, and you sue them for plagiarism.* That's why you need an agent first to guide you through the twists and turns of fictional book publishing. If you send a full manuscript along with your story outline and it is assumed interesting and the type of story their clients are likely to buy, your manuscript will go to a reader, usually*someone new to the business. and if he or she thinks it has possibilities it gets passed up the food chain.* If your*outline/precis undergoes this chain of critics it makes it to the 'to be considered list', it will attend a meeting with the editor being the final arbiter.* If you have an agent, they will at least get your book a read at the bottom of the chain. So, your agent is the first of many steps you go through to be a published fictional author.

I am assuming you, as proposed author, like me, want to be paid for your efforts.* *There are vanity publishers and have been around for donkey's*years, they would willing print your masterpiece, However, they do minimal editing and no selling, they would run the* manuscript through a spellcheck and grammar check and you would get say, a couple of hundred books in a box and thank you very much, You would give away fifty copies*to family and friends and the rest end up in your garage to be one day sold at a swap meet sale for a dollar or pound each.

The agent is critical for access*to publishers, in London or New York and if your tome is accepted by either country's publisher your agent handles the business end of the process.* Your agent can contact TV and film producers, and if you have written a biggie, milk every dollar or pound out of it for you, they get at least 10% of what you earn and 90% of something is greater than 100% of nothing.

*I wish I had been published and*the movie made but I made a little money and had my moment in the sun. "It is better to be loved and lost than never loved at all." Bill Shakespear said it all, baby."

Cheers and the best of British Luck, Rodney

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Rod .
My block buster "The Flood" . written around twenty years ago still sits a moulding in the wardrobe. Everyone has a book in them, as you say getting published is the biggy
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

I have written one about my life at sea.
Shown it to friends who think it is all a bit of tosh, no one could have done that they say.

That is the problem, non seafarers have no concept of what it was like back then, where we went and what we saw.

I saw a guy shot dead not 10 yards from me in Cape Town, those who were there at that time would understand, but the others no way.
So it sits on a couple of disks and maybe one day some one else may see it and say yes.

[Rodney Mills]

So, we three are sort of like Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront" Just look in the mirror, screw up your face, making it your saddest look and scream his greatest line "Charley, Charley ...I coulda been a contender.". We coulda been authors.

Cheers, from a broken-hearted Rodney

[Rodney Mills]

When I decided to write a screenplay about the First Afghan war, my late-wife and I were traveling with no permanent*abode.* We spent 6 months in Oz beach bumming and living in a Mitsubishi campervan, with an awning, table and bench chairs outside, so Australia was our living room and*my den for writing. Then four months of the year backpacking around Europe complete with a portable typewriter. We would fly from New York to London and return to New York from wherever we ended up at.
*
I needed to immerse myself in the historical background of the principal protagonists*and antagonists etc..* And the best place to do that was the British National Library in London.* I found out they had what they call a Readers Room.* You have to show proof you are qualified in some way to do research in order to get access. I figured*I had nothing to lose by applying for a Readers Card.

My late wife and I showed up at the Brit. Museum, now I told you this was my drop-out, latent hippie period, so we were not suited and tying it. I presented my Writers Guild card, and I had a copy of a*screenplay*and told them it was in pre-production, blah, blah. and B,S the rest and my secretary (my wife) was an ex-teacher with two masters degrees, and she too showed her credentials. and we bluffed our way into two reader cards giving entry*into the British Museum*Reading Room for ten days.

It was fantastic, it was huge.* It is unbelievable.* All the books and publications printed in English*are in the collection, all first editions, everything ever written in English, it's paradise for a bookworm and I'm sure the finest literary*research*place in the world.

This was in the old British Museum; they have a new location today. But I assume it is modeled on the old one. It was a huge circular room with the center which I'll call the hub, where you place your order for what books or magazines you want. Then there were sections like spokes that had enclosed desks with two chairs, subdued desk*lighting etc, all in highly*polished*wood, heavily carpeted so there would be no noise.* I placed my order for the books I wanted that were written*by the actule participants to the war (first editions).
**
My late wife, like me, was a bookworm, she loved Dickens, so she ordered first editions by Dickens.* We were in heaven.* I finished*my research, and we spent the balance of our card time just pulling up whatever*took our fancy.* You had to wear provided gloves around these real valuable original old books, and the book went on a special stand, so you didn't touch it other than to turn a page and not breathe on it. you placed your request and pushed a button, and a butler type delivered your books to your workspace and took them back when you had finished and would bring you whatever*others you wanted. It was, and I am sure done in the new reader's room, unbelievable.

There are many things the UK leads the world in, and the Brit. Museum Readers Room is definitely*one of them.

In closing, we spent a week in a B and B on the shores of Loch Ness, with a view of the Loch from our room, we made a special*priced deal for our weeks accommodation*and meals.

We would get up in the morning early, if it was raining, we had*hooded ponchos and our hiking boots. When we came back, a fully cooked breakfast was waiting.* Then I went back to preparing my notes and writing my*screenplay.*Scotland and the people were fantastic.

We never did see Nessie.

Cheers, Rodney

[Harry Nicholson]

That was an interesting thread. I dabble a bit. My first book, a historical novel set in NE England in Tudor times, was turned down by a publisher. At that, thinking 'What Philistines! It's a great story!' I gave up on the book industry, reckoning I'm too old to spend my last years courting publishers and so looked into independent publishing via Amazon. I've put out eight titles so far, and am still at it. It's an absorbing pass-time when it's too wet to do any gardening. I particularly enjoy the research.
Just looked at my sales figures on Amazon: So far this year 1,063 books sold (70% ebooks, the rest pb) and, on Amazon Prime it records 329k page reads (the author gets one cent for every 3 pages read) --- that's about equivalent to another 1,000 books.
I'm not running a BMW, but what comes in covers the groceries.

If you have a completed book on disc, it is easy to find a small local press who will print a few copies for you. I helped a friend put together his experiences as an army boffin with the development of the electronic gunsight for tanks. Only 25 copies were issued, but friends and family have them, and copies are lodged with the British Library and the Tank Museum - which is all he really wished for.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Harry.
Of all the books published; I wonder how many there out there that have not been published.
Des

[j.sabourn]

That sounds like a line from Casablanca Des, and Humphrey Bogart , “ in all the places ……………………….” JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

Going the publisher route is very hard work and time consuming, my own tome was written many years ago and after a lot (make that very many!) of disappointing replies was finally accepted for publication, naturally I was looking forward to signing the contract, alas 2-3 weeks later I received another letter advising me that my publication had been put on the back burner because they had received a cook book from some celebrity 'with big t*ts' (my words not theirs) that was more commercially viable and would have priority, they were open and honest about it, and being in business I understood their reasoning. 'Back Burner' is publisher speak for 'forget it'

Anyway my tome was submitted to Hull University in their Hull History reference section because of my own Hull history. I know it has been read on at least one occasion as some one from Hull later wrote about his time at sea, and there is only a million to one chance that someone other than myself would use the same words, in exactly the same sequence to describe certain situations on particular aspects on more than one occasion.

Anyway in no way was it comparable to 'Bill Spokeshave' and I never believed in the self publishing route, its there for my kids and grandkids if they ever want to bother to read it, at least they won't have to come on here and ask 'what did my dad do'

[j.sabourn]

They will have been told having worked out east Ivan you were a Bhandari ? JS