Faith, Hope & Love(tt)

When I posted last week that my book, Dear Will: The True Story of a Mother Who Never Gave Up, had been withdrawn by its publisher, my friend Kate Wooten asked this question on Facebook:  “Can you self-publish it to Kindle so I can read it?”

Unfortunately, the answer is no.  I’m caught between more than one rock and more than one hard place.

You can decide which are the rocks and which are the hard places but here are the players:

• Libel
  
• Invasion of Privacy
  
• Public Figures
  
• Private Individuals
  

Here’s the expert version of the issue:

And here’s the executive summary including the key part left out of  Jassin and Schechter’s book title:

• If I publish that you have 101 speeding tickets and you don’t, that’s libel.  If you see me, I will lose.
  

• If I publish that you have 101 speeding tickets and you do and you’re a private individual, that’s invasion of privacy.  If you sue me, I will lose.
  

• If I publish that you have 101 speeding tickets and you do but you’re a public figure, I will probably win the lawsuit you might file but I’ll have spent a fortune defending myself.
  

Major publishers carry insurance against the risk of libel and invasion of privacy lawsuits.  Small and medium-size publishers typically do not, and the coverage is, for all intents and purposes, impossible for an individual author to obtain.

And while telling the truth is a great defense against a charge of label, it’s an admission of guilt against a charge of invasion of privacy!

For my book, the libel part was easy.  My book doesn’t contain false statements.  In fact, most everything in the book is a matter of public record in the form of court records of the legal proceedings. However, that’s still not to say that someone mentioned in the book can’t sue me for libel and drag me into court to defend myself, which can—quite easily and very quickly—cost tens of thousands of dollars.

As to invasion of privacy, what constitutes a public figure?  Is an officer of the court a public figure by virtue of their position?  Again, it could cost tens of thousands of dollars to argue that point.  Ditto for expert witnesses.  And, mining tonight’s Oscar nominees for analogy fodder, unless you’re Daniel Day-Lewis’s best friend or Anne Hathaway’s little sister, your friends and family members are probably private individuals.

So how are the tell-all’s we see on every bestseller list possible?  Well, they’re either published by major publishers who have excellent insurance coverage or they’re published by people with nothing to lose.  If I didn’t have two cents to rub together, I’d put out an e-book version of Dear Will in a heartbeat.  As it stands, I’m not prepared to risk my children’s inheritance in order to publish the book.

Before you take up the banner of the First Amendment in my defense, remember that you’re “free” to yell, “FIRE” in a crowded theater but at the very least one will almost certainly be charged with disturbing the peace for doing so.  In other words, you’re “free” to say or publish anything you’d like but it can cost you to do so.

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

Having had all ten of my toes curled on the edge of the precipice of publication of Dear Will: The True Story of a Mother Who Never Gave Up, two pages in the publisher’s spring catalog, available for pre-order on Barnes & Noble’s website, and ready to talk tour with the publicist, legal concerns brought the entire project to a screeching halt just before Christmas.

So, I’ve been perched on that precipice ever since.  Do I inch back down or do I jump into another writing project?  Telling you I’ve decided to jump makes it official (and much harder to back down!).  It may never see print (there are about a billion things that can go wrong) but I will do my best to shine a light on the life and times of Adelicia Hayes Franklin Acklen Cheatham, a fascinating woman who made her fictional contemporary Scarlett O’Hara look like a weak-willed wallflower.

A young Adelicia Hayes about the time of her engagement to Alphonso Gibbs.

Much more to come!

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

Best Buy, take note.

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

Whether you’re an organizer, official (okay, maybe this is not true of all of the dressage judges), volunteer, rider, owner, coach or trainer, this is why we do it.  Bagpipes at sunrise and then…this.

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

Today is dressage and stadium at River Glen Summer HT.  This is what it looks like.

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

In between handing out packets and scoring at River Glen Summer HT this weekend, I will overhear one or more of these comments every time I set foot outside the show office to post scores.  Handy translation guide included.

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

As I head to the River Glen Equestrian Center for this weekend’s horse trials, I know I’ll be seeing lots of this over the next several days.

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

So…what was I doing during the 5-week series on writing?

I’ll tell if YOU will.

• Continued to research bariatric surgery.  I still have a seminar to attend so I’ll hold off pontificating on the subject until I’ve gathered as much information as possible.

• Bought four new tires.  (Hey, it’s not all fun and games.)

• Because losing 10% of one’s highest body weight of the current year is a prerequisite for my insurance to cover bariatric surgery, started Weight Watchers with my daughter Esme on August 1st.  And have lost 11.6 lbs., thank you very much.

• Secretaried and scored a sold-out horse trials at River Glen Equestrian Center in New Market, Tennessee with my CPA & Excel buddy, Julie Burns.  Knowing I had that job on my plate was my initial reason for setting up the 5-week series.  There is a LOT of very time-consuming detail work that goes into preparing for these events in addition to the four days away from home, glued to a series of spreadsheets.

• Listened when Debra Taylor, the RIGHT kind of girlfriend, told me in the nicest possible way that I needed some serious styling and introduced me to former Miss USA runner-up and image consultant extraordinaire, Sharon Harper.  Miz Sharon told me the argument against coloring my hair was over and I lost.  That will be taken care of tomorrow.  And, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you, I my wardrobe has now been styled.  And it didn’t empty Sir Shining’s bank account either.  (Ok, sometimes it is fun and games.)

• Received an update over lunch from an author I’m mentoring, a rare one who has actually followed through and completed his first draft!  And inspired his wife to do the same!

• Tracked down a teacher who had a tremendous influence on me and told her thank-you.

• Went to a $5.50 movie and then dinner with Sir Shining.  His pick: The Bourne Legacy.

• FINALLY finished going through over half a century’s worth of photographs, getting them in chronological order, and taking them to Wolf Camera to have them digitized for the ridiculously low price of $60 per 450 photos.  (The second reason I set up the 5-week writing series.  I wanted my dining room table back.)

• Was profoundly grateful that an air-conditioning part it will take a week to get broke AFTER the temps had fallen into the 80’s rather than WHILE they were in the 100’s.

• Took advantage of the 5-week hiatus from producing new blogging material to let a miracle-working, board-certified plastic surgeonremove my extra chin.

• Took to heart the admonition of the aforementioned Julie Burns that all blog posts must take at least 5 minutes to read and the admonition of the aforementioned Debra Taylor that all blog posts must last as long as it takes her to sip a cup of tea. 

Drink up, Debra.

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

Beware of thin ice and dog poo.

Every time I think I’ve missed the timing boat for the review of a book that came out in February 2012 and a movie that “premiered” in October 2011, more tales of wildly privileged people behaving badly revivify their relevance.

First, the ice.

In The Darlings: A Novel, her fiction debut, Cristina Alger, a Harvard-trained former financial analyst and former lawyer, gives us a roman à clef with a little bit of Madoff, a little bit of (son of the South) Walter Noel, a dash of Sir Robert Maxwell, and a nod to Bonfire of the Vanities (when nice cars go to bad neighborhoods).

The Darlings’ picture-perfect world is revealed to be just that: a shiny image reflected by a slick surface. It’s voyeurism at its best to watch the cracks form and widen until the ice shatters, and they all get a series of nasty shocks.

And on a technical side note, Alger did a masterful job with point of view, telling each section of the story from the perspective of a different main character.

And now for the poo.

If you prefer movies to books, here’s one of the best Oscar-nominated films (Best Original Screenplay) that never appeared in a theater near you.

Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Stanley Tucci, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell and Penn Badgley.  In one movie.  After seeing the trailer for Margin Call, I could hardly wait for its October 21, 2011 release date.  But then, nothing.  It was never in any theater that I could find, and I set the search parameters for 100 miles.  I finally gave up waiting and watched it via Amazon Instant Video.

According to the movie’s plot, the 2007 collapse of the housing market started with a sincere effort to minimize volatility in the related financial market.  The disaster was triggered by an unfortunate math error.  The response to the disaster was, of course, a moral failing.

PALATE CLEANSER:

You’ll need one.  Go perform at least one act of hands-on charity to get the the stench out of your hair and clothes and get your head back in the right place after your emerge from The Darlings: A Novel and Margin Call.

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

But know that most of your success will be up to you.

Once you sign a publishing contract, do everything you learned in your Step 5, Step 8, and Step 23 reading plus everything your agent and publisher tell you to do to make your book as successful as it can possibly be and keep doing it until the book stops selling.

All while continuing your repetition of the process for your next book.

See you at a bookstore!

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

But no need to shout, just grab a microphone.

If you didn’t just leave the Oval Office or own your own television network or land a crippled plane on the Hudson River in midtown Manhattan with no loss of life, be doing anything you can to build your platform.  Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World: A Step-by-Step Guide for Anyone with Something to Say or Sell byMichael Hyatt can show you how.

In the meantime, keep working through your repetition of Steps 7-19 for your next book while your agent does his or her (statistically, it will probably be her) job for your current book. 

When you receive an offer, listen to your agent’s advice.  As nice as it is to have someone—anyone—want your book, it might not be the right offer.

When you receive what you and your agent believe is the right offer, it’s time to talk to that specialized attorney again.

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

About at least one thing.

In Henry VI, Part 2, Shakespeare has Dick the Butcher suggest that to set up a perfect society, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

Bad idea.

Once you choose an agent (and, hopefully, you will choose an agent v. signing with the first person willing to talk to you), have a specialized lawyer review the agency contract before you sign it. 

Intellectual property in general and the publishing industry specifically are their own weird universes.  This is most emphatically NOT the time to put your creative and financial future in the hands of your brother-in-law the personal injury trial lawyer or your college roommate who closes residential real estate transactions.

You will want this legal eagle on speed dial when you have a publishing contract in hand and again if your manuscript needs to be vetted for libel or invasion of privacy issues.

‘Twere me, I wouldst contacteth Alan J. Kaufman.

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

You as a Writer 2.0.  And counting.

You won’t be querying 24/7.  So go back to Step 7 and start on your next book.

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

Congratulations, you are now a virtual door-to-door salesman.

It goes without saying that you’ve done your homework, right?

• There are no agents on your list whose profiles say they don’t represent books like yours.

• There are no agents on your list whose profiles say they don’t accept unsolicited queries.

• There are no agents on your list whose profiles say they aren’t taking on new clients.

• You aren’t contemplating emailing someone who wants snail mail or vice versa.

Ok, good.  Now, starting at the bottom of your list of agents, start querying.

You can send out more than one query at a time (as long as you don’t mislead a prospective agent into thinking she has an exclusive) but don’t query all the agents on your list at once.  Remember, you don’t know what you’re doing at first.  Make your mistakes in front of a handful of people, not in front of every literary agent in North America!

Track your progress with a spreadsheet:  when you sent the query, when (actually, if) you received a response, and any feedback.  Any feedback at all.  Even the painful stuff is helpful.

• If a prospective agent tells you he doesn’t handle your type of project, either you didn’t do your homework before you sent the query or the agent’s tastes have changed.

• If the agent now says she has a full client list, that’s not a reflection on you.  Heck, you can almost count that as positive!

• If the agent says your work needs work, well, that’s good to know.  You can do something about that.  Either yourself or hire someone to help.

Let’s say you land a live one.  An agent asks to see your proposal.  Great!  Send it BUT keep querying. 

Asking to see your proposal is NOT asking to represent you.  And you may still be swimming in the depths of your list of agents, querying people you’ve never heard of who represent books you’ve never heard of.

So continue to send out new queries.  And maybe move past your “safeties” and start querying some of the “reach” agents on your list.

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

Draft an irresistible query. 

This is what an agent’s life looks like.  You have to cut through it like a lightning bolt.

So revisit The Writer’s Digest Guide to Query Letters by Wendy Burt-Thomas, then craft an agent-seducing desk cleaner of an email.

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

Draft an irresistible proposal. 

Many how-to books talk about writing the query first.  I wrote the proposal first for two reasons: 

• It’s much easier to distill a manuscript down to 30 to 50 pages than down to one page. 

• And I found that the proposal wrote the query for me. In the distillation process, the essence bubbles up and begs to be given the starring role in the query.

So revisit How to Write a Book Proposal by Michael Larsen, then weave your own agent-attracting spell.

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

It’s almost time to go a-courtin’.

Unless you want the success of your book to be all on you—up to and including cover design and interior layout, picking paper stock, contracting production, handling shipping and receiving (just how big is your garage?), promotion (have the New York Times book reviewer on speed dial, do you?), publicity, distribution (who do you know at Amazon, bn.com, Ingram, over a thousand independent booksellers, Costco, and Sam’s Club plus outside-the-box retail possibilities?), sales tax collection and remittance, ad truly infinitum—research agents.

Look in the acknowledgements section of books like yours, comb the entries in the most recent Guide to Literary Agents (edited by Chuck Sambuchino) for agents who represent the type of book you’ve written, and make a list of possibilities.

Consider making a tiered list.  Odds are good that you’ll look like an idiot the first time you query an agent so don’t choose a superstar to be the recipient of your first effort.  You want to hold your try-outs way off-Broadway. 

So put the agents of bestsellers at the top of your list, and the agents who say they’re interested in books like yours but have a client list of books and authors you’ve never heard of at the bottom of your list.  In the middle, add some agents who have repped authors and books like yours that you recognize only because you’re a devoted fan of the genre, even if those titles didn’t climb any charts.

Yes, this is just like building a college list:  dream schools, reaches, and safeties.

In faith, hope & love,

Debo

Yes, again. 

Read your manuscript one more time.  If it’s a) the best work you can do and b) so compelling from first word to last that a bookstore customer will be unable to resist it, proceed to Step 17. 

But know that at least one thing your mother probably told you is absolutely true:  You only have one chance to make a good first impression.  Not only on the bookstore customer but also on the agent and the editor you probably have to go through to even have a shot at the bookstore customer. 

If your manuscript isn’t the best work you can do, revise it again.  If it’s still not so compelling from word one that a bookstore customer will be unable to resist it, know that agents, editors and bookstore customers will resist it. 

If you are in a position to do so, consider hiring expert help.  Personally, I did not have a productive experience when I tried to do this as locally and as inexpensively as possible.  If that’s all you can afford, then by all means give it a shot.  But here’s what worked for me. 

When I went through this process myself, I bought how-to books by the pound.  The books you see in this syllabus are only the ones I found most applicable, coherent, and useful. 

I did not fail to notice that Michael Larsen’s name is on three of them.  In “considering the source,” I researched Michael Larsen.  I learned that he worked in promotion for three major New York publishing houses before he and his wife moved to San Francisco in 1970 and founded Michael Larsen/Elizabeth Pomada Literary Agents, Northern California’s oldest literary agency, in 1972. 

I found out he has written or co-written a number of bestselling books and that he writes the most beautiful book dedications (to his wife) that I have ever read.  (Sigh.) 

And while combing the agency’s website, I discovered that Michael Larsen holds call-in office hours during which he gives quick answers to questions on the spot for free if he can and offers to schedule $100 thirty minute coaching sessions if a more in-depth answer is needed or desired. 

So I called in one day and asked how I should go about finding a good freelance editor.  He suggested writing groups or craiglist.  I pointed out that I’d asked how to find a good freelance editor.  He started to describe the all-over-the-map price range for editorial services.  I politely said that price was not the point and asked once again how to find a good freelance editor.  And then he said, “Oh, in that case, Google Independent Editors Group in New York.” 

I did and I was very pleased.  You can go straight to IEG’s website and click on the profiles of the various editors available.  Look for someone with experience and interest in your type of book.  Contact one or more of them to ascertain fees, schedule availability, and whether or not the candidate “feels like” someone you could work with.  It won’t be cheap but it will be good.

In faith, hope & love,

Debo