In Abigail Thomas's perfect potpurri of a book for writers -Thinking About Memoir she lists about 150 + prompts to prompt you to write promptly - every day. Here's one to try. And my effoirt - just a ten-minute freewrite. Go! And post it if you are willing.
#128 Write two pages starting with "Get me out of here!"
Effort by Katharine English.
Get me out of here! Everywhere – demands! At every turn – a favor asked. All my creditors come forward demanding payment, favors, help. Help!
You have no idea how burdensome my life is. An example – Anthony called four times yesterday, each time pleading: “Can you look at this latest letter I’ve written to the D.A.?” “Will you proof my resume?” “I know you’re not practicing anymore, but I have a legal question about foreclosure…” Of course, I say yes. He’s my brother.
Lucy wants a letter of recommend to Goddard College’s MFA program. She lacks self-esteem, wants to know if I think she’ll be admitted. Of course she will, I say. Will I write this, and say that, and render my opinion of her poetry? Of course I say I will. She’s my sister.
Harry wants to have breakfast. He won’t talk about anything personal, he never does. But I will chat and cheer him. We will laugh. I will examine his fifteenth-year coin and praise his sobriety. Of course we will. He’s my brother.
Sandy wants to chat, unable once again to decide “Should I live in Hawaii where I’m so healthy? Should I live in Mt. Vernon next to the twenty-two grandchildren?” “Sereta,” I say, “Your family runs you ragged and your lungs close down. Hello?” Still, I spend an hour on the phone. Of course I do. She’s my sister.
They are just my siblings. There are my friends, my writing group, my husband and my step-daughter. Give me time, give me feedback, give me breakfast, give me tuition. Of course I say yes, yes, yes, yes.
My office chides, “Clean me.” The school calls, “Can you sub?” My doctor asks, “Are you coming?” I do, I go, I am.
In Sunday School I learned and (does this surprise anyone?) still can sing a child’s song:
Give said the little stream
Give, oh give, Give, oh give
Give said the little stream
As it hurried down the hill
I'm small I know but wherever I go
The grass grows greener still
Give said the little rain
Give, oh give,Give, oh give
Give said the little rain
As it fell upon the flowers
I'll raise their weary heads again
As it fell upon the flowers
If I turned off the phone and closed my computer, if I put away my calendar, if I said no and no and no, what would I do? I would drive to the Bear Lake cabin and sit on the porch, my legs on the rail, watching the sun rise like a red scarf over the lake in the eastern sky before me, watching the light and shadows play like children on those same hills in the evening. I would read books and magazines, and cook spinach lasagna and eat too much fruit, and write in my journal, and dust, and polish, and tidy my drawers, and alphabetize my spices, and arrange my closet by colors and soon, maybe even very soon, I would stand on the porch and yell into the silent air.
“Get me out of here.”
Of course…I’m me.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
The San Francisco conference (very advanced! pefect for all of us ready or almost-ready to think about publishing) was wonderful - every day filled with optional workshops, lectures, seminars. I learned so much about the publishing business - enough to give pause to the most ambitious writer!
Process: First there is the writer - YOU; Then, if you so choose, the "book doctor" (free-lance editors) helps you get you book into shape for pitching to agents (they charge from $60-$125 hour!)
Then there are the agents to whom you "pitch" your book in various required ways (query letter or book proposal, face-to-face in "speed-dating, as at SFO), etc...
Then, IF an agent decides to represent a writer s/he is the one who tries to sell the idea of the book (and the book) to an editor.
Then, IF the editor likes the book s/he tries to sell it to the publisher. Once the book is purchased it takes about 18-24 months to get it to market.
And THEN? Distribution and promotion. 90% of the time it's the author's job to sell it! This means an author should try to have (and "pitch") a "platform" (some agnets and editors want this in the "pitch": a blog, a website, an e-mail list, an "in" to interviews and book reviews, an audience in mind, contacts, etc.
The whole process seems both exciting and daunting!
At the SFO "speed-dating agents" (three minutes each with however many editors you can get to - I stood in line and made it to three in the alloted hour; most writers made it to four), two agents ask me to send them a book proposal and/or sample chapters (somehting which happens at these conferences, but the agent/agency may still not like the book and may turn the writer down, which happens much of the time).
At the "Ask A Pro" (at which nine writers sat at a table with Editors and had 5 minutes each to talk to an Editor, and then got up and stood in line for another table) one editor asked me to send her the whole manuscript without an agent first. So I count the conference a success on any level.
Still, I am having second thoughts - I am not sure the book is in the shape it should be in before I send it anywhere, and I'm not sure I have the time to finish it up to my satisfaction before I go to Korea for three weeks Mar. 3. I am in the process now of thinking and editing and deciding what to do. I don't want to miss these opportunities, but I don't want to blow them either. My advice:
My advice: Memoirists, poetry, and fiction: Have your book done, complete, ready to send before you meet with agents/editors. Nonfiction: Have several chapters completed to attach to book proposals.
Agency websites I found particularly helpful: Larsen-Pomada Agency; Katharine Sands Agency; Ted Weinstein Agency; Nathan Bransford Agency - lots of info about pitching, query letters, book proposals, etc.
querytracker.com is where I am researching agents and keeping track of queries - good site!
Books by Micahel Larsen and Katharine Sands.
Self-publishing: I also learned about, and am highly attracted to, self-publishing on the web. (This would be a start for you, too!) This process is no longer the old "vanity press" method of paying someone to publsih your work with limited distribution. Some authors publish and print a run and then help to sell their own in-hand books. Others "print-on-demand." so that the book is printed when it is sold. The author controls everything! Agents and publishers scour these book sites and when a book has sold 500 or more they might decide to convert these books to publishing house books for wider distribution - an excellent way for a first time author to start. Reputable places work with authors to self-publish - Amazon, for example, sells 25% of the books sold in this country, and have a highly respected self-publishing arm. And iiuniverse, among others.
For $10 + I purchased my domain url - katharineenglish.com (you should go to GoDaddy.com and purchase your own name so no one else gets it), and I am going to learn how to set up a website for my writing.
Hope this information is useful to some of you...
Process: First there is the writer - YOU; Then, if you so choose, the "book doctor" (free-lance editors) helps you get you book into shape for pitching to agents (they charge from $60-$125 hour!)
Then there are the agents to whom you "pitch" your book in various required ways (query letter or book proposal, face-to-face in "speed-dating, as at SFO), etc...
Then, IF an agent decides to represent a writer s/he is the one who tries to sell the idea of the book (and the book) to an editor.
Then, IF the editor likes the book s/he tries to sell it to the publisher. Once the book is purchased it takes about 18-24 months to get it to market.
And THEN? Distribution and promotion. 90% of the time it's the author's job to sell it! This means an author should try to have (and "pitch") a "platform" (some agnets and editors want this in the "pitch": a blog, a website, an e-mail list, an "in" to interviews and book reviews, an audience in mind, contacts, etc.
The whole process seems both exciting and daunting!
At the SFO "speed-dating agents" (three minutes each with however many editors you can get to - I stood in line and made it to three in the alloted hour; most writers made it to four), two agents ask me to send them a book proposal and/or sample chapters (somehting which happens at these conferences, but the agent/agency may still not like the book and may turn the writer down, which happens much of the time).
At the "Ask A Pro" (at which nine writers sat at a table with Editors and had 5 minutes each to talk to an Editor, and then got up and stood in line for another table) one editor asked me to send her the whole manuscript without an agent first. So I count the conference a success on any level.
Still, I am having second thoughts - I am not sure the book is in the shape it should be in before I send it anywhere, and I'm not sure I have the time to finish it up to my satisfaction before I go to Korea for three weeks Mar. 3. I am in the process now of thinking and editing and deciding what to do. I don't want to miss these opportunities, but I don't want to blow them either. My advice:
My advice: Memoirists, poetry, and fiction: Have your book done, complete, ready to send before you meet with agents/editors. Nonfiction: Have several chapters completed to attach to book proposals.
Agency websites I found particularly helpful: Larsen-Pomada Agency; Katharine Sands Agency; Ted Weinstein Agency; Nathan Bransford Agency - lots of info about pitching, query letters, book proposals, etc.
querytracker.com is where I am researching agents and keeping track of queries - good site!
Books by Micahel Larsen and Katharine Sands.
Self-publishing: I also learned about, and am highly attracted to, self-publishing on the web. (This would be a start for you, too!) This process is no longer the old "vanity press" method of paying someone to publsih your work with limited distribution. Some authors publish and print a run and then help to sell their own in-hand books. Others "print-on-demand." so that the book is printed when it is sold. The author controls everything! Agents and publishers scour these book sites and when a book has sold 500 or more they might decide to convert these books to publishing house books for wider distribution - an excellent way for a first time author to start. Reputable places work with authors to self-publish - Amazon, for example, sells 25% of the books sold in this country, and have a highly respected self-publishing arm. And iiuniverse, among others.
For $10 + I purchased my domain url - katharineenglish.com (you should go to GoDaddy.com and purchase your own name so no one else gets it), and I am going to learn how to set up a website for my writing.
Hope this information is useful to some of you...
Climbing the Vine to Getting Published
February 20, 2009
Nearly nine months since I posted. And why? Because after graduation I gave up the writing I went to graduate school to learn to do! My "completed" manuscript - Salvation - A Judge's Memoir of a Mormon Childhood - sat unopened in my studio, while I substitute taught any subject I was called for, cooked pedestrian meals, traveled toour little cabin at Bear lake, read literature and trash, and basically let the spiders nest and the dust motes float in my studio.
Courage returned! And I have just returned from the 2009 San Francisco Writers Conference, which was chock full of informative, companionable attendees, and gracious agents and editors.
Have you dreams of publishing your book? Fiction, nonfiction, memoir, short stories, essays, poems? Take a breath, gird the old loins, and set your sights on that great beanstalk to the stars - the Publishing Vine. Of course, there are climbers who skip a branch and leap up; there are writers who catapult or reach up on stilts; but most writers climb up hand over hand, foot over foot, eyeing the route, testing the weight, gripping the branch for its strength.
I will post what I learned in "More About..."
Nearly nine months since I posted. And why? Because after graduation I gave up the writing I went to graduate school to learn to do! My "completed" manuscript - Salvation - A Judge's Memoir of a Mormon Childhood - sat unopened in my studio, while I substitute taught any subject I was called for, cooked pedestrian meals, traveled toour little cabin at Bear lake, read literature and trash, and basically let the spiders nest and the dust motes float in my studio.
Courage returned! And I have just returned from the 2009 San Francisco Writers Conference, which was chock full of informative, companionable attendees, and gracious agents and editors.
Have you dreams of publishing your book? Fiction, nonfiction, memoir, short stories, essays, poems? Take a breath, gird the old loins, and set your sights on that great beanstalk to the stars - the Publishing Vine. Of course, there are climbers who skip a branch and leap up; there are writers who catapult or reach up on stilts; but most writers climb up hand over hand, foot over foot, eyeing the route, testing the weight, gripping the branch for its strength.
I will post what I learned in "More About..."
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