So now there is this piece in the Wall Street Journal (Dec 9, 2011) about Darcie Chan, whose Mill River Recluse is a bestseller ebook. As I read the article, I thought it was curious that the journalist did not talk to readers of the book and what else they liked to read. Yes, of course there are the reviews on Amazon, but the positive ones are rather breathless in tone as usual, and I prefer to look at the book sample if available and decide for myself.
Here’s the link -
Darcie Chan in the Wall Street Journal
and here are some comments:
1. I could not determine here if any small publishers were contacted. If not, why not?
2. Darcie paid $1000 for marketing, $575 for a Kirkus review that turned out to be positive, it is true, when it could have been negative. It appears there were other expenses. Note that she is an environmental lawyer and her husband a doctor. They live in Westchester County, NY, which in 2009 was among the 50 highest income counties in the US (according to Wikipedia). In other words, deep pockets. Could the average person afford that kind of outlay?
3. Pricing the book at 99 cents just so people might consider it was smart. Ebook readers will in fact take a chance on a 99 cent book, as I’ve heard from an ebook enthusiast of my acquaintance. I’ve done the same, although none were any good.
4. Here are her actual Amazon reviews: 351 5-star; 123 4-star;180 1-3 star.
5. There is a substantial sample from the book on Amazon. As Darcie herself states, it is certainly true that she needs an editor. So she could not hire an independent editor at the least?
6. Kirkus and Indie Reviews were the only independent opinions she received. Her family and friends read her books, but,their opinions are not objective feedback, no matter what she may think. The writing in the sample was competent but weak in spots. If she had come to us first I would have insisted on editing. Of course, the sales count for a lot, but then again the book was only 99 cents. However, it is nice for her that she’s getting movie offers.
7. Consider that Darcie has not had any fiction of any sort published anywhere else. That, too, is platform, and it is also a way of getting independent feedback. In fact, this may also be what the publishers she spoke to looked for, as well as the fact she should have the book edited, and not just the “problem” of genre. Why is it that self-publishers never talk about submitting pieces to magazines or the like? Why is it so many of these writers have not taken writing courses? Nor do they join or start writing groups to learn about writing, nor do they even consider entering fiction contests. Self-publishing writers do not seem to take criticism well.
8. Isn’t odd that she had a good review from Kirkus and good sales, but still could not get a book contract? No, it’s not. Based on the sample, the book is ok for 99 cents but not for a $26 hardback, for that matter not even for a paperback.
J. K Rowling’s history as a single mother and writer is more compelling.
Here is a wonderful little piece about thinking about writing instead of griping, daydreaming, or planning what you have to when you get to work or the grocery store:
Writing in the Shower by Mohan Mittal.
Use at least some of your nonwriting time to think about writing. Then, when you get to the few minutes that you can write, it won’t be a totally cold start. Mohan says he does that writerly stuff - brainstorm ideas, observe himself or others or his surroundings, and eavesdrop a bit on the talk that surrounds him - as he waits in line, sits in the doctor’s waiting room, and, yes, takes a shower. Mohan has a day job, but he is also a freelance writer with article deadlines. He’s busier than I am!
To take advantage of free moments, you should have something to capture ideas at some point. I carry a small notebook and pen nearly everywhere I go, and I use my cellphone recorder once in a while. A tablet is another option. In the past, and to an extent even now, writers would scribble with anything on anything portable, but I don’t have time to search for scraps. If none of these are possible, I suppose a writer could develop ideas solely in the mind and memorize them. Poets have composed their first drafts entirely mentally.
If you take public transportation to work, you’ve got free time right there. In my college commute I wrote poetry and journal entries on the city bus. Now I’m alone in the car for about 1 1/2 hours a day. I could stop griping about work situations on the way to my job or about chores on the way home. My annoyance doesn’t change anything, and I still face the empty page in the evening when I get back home. How can I prime the pump in the car?
1. Listen to good radio news and features and think about how my responses could make a viable piece of writing. As it is, they make it into my pocket notebook when I get to my destination, and if I can they also get into a journal.
2. Stare at other drivers and make up stories about them.
3. Listen to good writing on recordings. Rosemary Daniell, the leader of Zona Rosa writing groups, listens to recorded fiction even while she cooks.
4. At red lights. study a passerby crossing the walk, a bit of nature, a building, or anything you see. So far I’ve been able to make a mini-movie in my mind with my thoughts as soundtrack, vivid enough to survive the delay until I can record it.
5. Listen to relaxing music on the way to wherever I am going where I will be writing.
6. Brainstorm ideas for this blog, for marketing this company and our products, or for building a platform for my book on arsenic in groundwater in Bangladesh.
7. Record my poems, then listen to them in the car. I could think about improvements and critique my own performance as well.
What do you think you could be doing during your commute?
Science fiction - fantasy - poetry - whatever. A writer is a reader as well. Read it all, throughout history and from different cultures and countries, what you like and what you don’t (as long as you can stand it), and then read forms and authors new to you.
Reading work that moves you is like hanging out with people who inspire you. In my teens. my mother told me to be careful with whom I associated, because a person is influenced by their companions. Rebellious as I was, of course I asked why I couldn’t be an influence on them. As the years passed I realized that we both were right, but let’s focus on her point. She had meant to warn me against bad company, but in fact good company, such as my writing group Zona Rosa, helps us grow.
Writing by good authors is another way to keep good company. Good means the writers you like as well as the iconic writers whom you may not like, but who are good for you to know, rather like the influential coworker, whom you would not choose as a friend, but who can help you get things done. Once in a while you can look over some bad writing, for instance some of those self-published books at fairs. Those authors serve as bad examples whose deeds you should avoid, such as spending more time at marketing than in writing the book.
Blogs and private journals each have their place.
The blog is, ultimately, our outward face. I know it was meant to be a sharing of ourselves to others, but we have to clean it up so that it become readable. Let’s be honest, a good blog needs structure and interest. Ultimately, a blog is another piece of finished writing.
Your private journal is your inner face. You have the luxury to let it rip, to be as boastful, self-pitying, redundant, dry, obsessive, obtuse, unfinished as you please. It’s like doodling on the piano, loving the smooth keys and the ringing sound. However, it is also like working out until the ache starts in the muscle, in this case the writing muscle, as Joe puts it. On the other hand it is also a kind of loosening up, like shaking your arms and legs to get the tension out before you get up on the podium to speak.
When you practice writing as honestly as you can, without recourse to cliche or euphemisms, when you let go of good manners, when you write without fear of anyone’s reaction or opinion, you develop a flow from soul to mind to hand that will make writing for a purpose much easier and often more powerful. You teach yourself how to put your whole self on the page.
In If You Want to Write, the writing teacher Brenda Euland exhorts, “Be careless, reckless! Be a lion, be a pirate! Write any old way.” Much easier in a journal.
Rosemary Daniell, the leader of the Zona Rosa writing group, says that your journal can point you to what matters to you, and it’s worth rereading your old entries. Even now I am still struck by the passion in my own writing. Here’s an example of one of my entries about how to write a poem:
“To be sure, what we experience can surely have been influenced by our spiritual and other upbringing. Even given that, we have a duty to be as honest and true as we can, no, not as we can.No, within our abilities to make a poem, we have to be utterly true. Didacticism or cheap simple sentiment is discernible in a poem as the gasoline taste of cheap champagne.”
Sloppy, don’t you think? But I was being me. My private journal is the room of my own that Virginia Woolf urged us to have.
We have to practice art to improve. A private journal gives us space to practice new ways and to stumble until we learn. We don’t need to be on display all the time.
Actually everyone ought to write anyway instead of sending pre-printed cards. Courteous brides (and grooms too, I hope!) have always sent handwritten thank you notes. For instance, my graceful niece Jennifer mailed her notes within 6 weeks of her beautiful sunset wedding on the beach at Hilton Head. Yes, your guests probably had a wonderful time at your wedding, but a gift is a kindness to you, not an obligation. A little note in your own words reciprocates the thoughtfulness.
I had better confess now that I did not send thank-yous to either after my own reception that followed the civil ceremony at the jusitice of the peace, and I don’t think I sent many for the much-needed gifts at my two baby showers. Stage-fright, honestly
However, I always write condolence letters, and usually on good stationery instead of sympathy cards. Think about how you felt when someone you loved died. Perhaps it felt like a canyon in your soul, or a torrent in your heart. Think about the funeral, where everyone is quiet, polite, and if you or someone else is crying, it can barely be heard. Think about how little time there is to talk with anyone.
Your talent with words can be a balm to the bereaved. Providing sympathy and support to a grieving friend in this tangible way is one of the most important gifts in life.
Remember not to say that the deceased is in a better place, or that at least there’s no more suffering, or that the bereaved will have another child or another spouse. None of those remarks are loving at all, because we want the people we love with us right now. Try instead to recount a shining memory of the one who died, or something that you admired or loved about that person. Alternately you can say how much you care for the bereaved and that they are in your thoughts and/or prayers. For instance, tell them how inspired by how much they loved the deceased. Try to be specific in this way, Try to tell them what’s in your heart, but don’t put your sadness on the page. Quite a challenge, isn’t it?
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