Hitting the Books

This post is not about books, though it does touch slightly on the power of the written word.

This is the story of a little girl. Our friends Becca and Jason just had their second child, who developed complications shortly after birth. Addie was rushed to a larger NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) an hour away from home. In an effort to sort out feelings and to keep everyone up to date on what’s happening, Becca has written everything down in her blog www.dasbecca.com.

Becca is a marvelous writer. She somehow manages, despite (or perhaps because of) the emotional highs and lows, to be coherent, detailed, and poignant. And it’s amazing how many people have written in to share their sympathy and support .

If after reading Addie’s story you’d like to let them know you’re thinking of them, drop Becca and Jason a comment at www.dasbecca.com. If you’d like to help a bit more with gas and other medical expenses, you can donate here (it’s down below the comic strip).

Thanks for reading, and God bless.

Oh yeah, did I mention the bigger POD companies are pushy?! I’ve gotten numerous emails from AuthorHouse telling me how wonderful their services are. Booksurge is even worse. The day after I signed up for information, I got an email saying if I didn’t respond to set up an appointment to talk to them, they would call me the following Monday. Um, no. I don’t think so. Salespeople are not my favorite callers, and these companies are not really doing me much of a favor. Sure, my book would be “published,” but at the rates they charge, I’ll be lucky to ever break even. More than likely, I would be several hundred dollars in the hole, and the pushy emailer at the other end would have a nice commission sitting in his/her pocket. Sigh. But I was a good girl and merely told the person not to contact me as I was still researching my options.

A friendly commenter suggested I check out Lulu.com, which is a free self publishing service (only charges on books actually sold). I think I shall toddle on over to their website and see what they have to offer.

The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands Dr. Laura Schlessinger

“Contrary to what a good forty years of feminist propaganda has claimed, it is not oppression, subjugation, or abdication of any feminine quality-of-life potential to marry a man, be proud of your bonding, rejoice in your gifts and sacrifices for your marriage and family, and derive pleasure and sustenance from your role as a wife and mother.”–from the introduction to The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands

Every so often I read a book that just whacks me between the eyes like a 2×4. This one is one of them. (If I use a lot of quotes in this review, it’s because Dr. Schlessinger is very quotable)

I’ve heard Dr. Laura called “Dr. Eichmann” for her extreme right-wing views, and I’m sure this book did not endear her to the left-wing feminist movement, especially as she as good as blames feminism for destroying the institution of marriage. Dr. Laura says that the quote “women need men like fish need bicycles” has become the mindset of many women today, and as a result, women have become incredibly self-centered. They “get married thinking largely about what their marriage and their men can do for them, and not what they can do for their men.” And in example after example, from radio call-ins, letters, and emails, she shows just how true that statement is. Women have been raised to believe they deserve it all–children, career, hobbies, social life, and woe to her man if he asks for a little of her precious time for himself. “He needs to be more understanding of her needs’ is the common theme of these women.

But what about his needs? Is marriage not a partnership? A give-and-take relationship? A man’s needs are not difficult. According to male listeners (and my husband, who read the book at my request, and said that she basically hit everything dead on), men are simple. “Give him direct communication, respect, appreciation, food, and good lovin’, and he’ll do just about anything you wish–foolish or not.”

That is the theme of the book. Chapter by chapter Dr. Laura shows women how to break down their double standard, make little changes in behavior and attitude, and then watch how their men respond. A few gems:

*”I learned that MY MOOD set the mood for the house!”*”Women should take whatever a man says at face value. Women tend to overanalyze men when men are just not that complicated.” * “Wives must accept and allow their husbands to have the same feelings, cares, and concerns that they have. Assume it. Don’t badger your husbands for female-like expression of feelings–just assume it, and behave accordingly, with understanding, compassion, and support.”

These sound like, “Well, duh!” statements, but the surprise is how many women don’t seem to get the point. Many female readers will no doubt be angered by Dr. Laura’s finger-pointing, and others will be turned off by her assumption that the Bible is the ultimate source of how a man and woman should interact. But after reading The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands, I took a hard look at the way I treated my husband, and started changing my ways as Dr. Schlessinger suggested. You know what? She’s right.

After running into difficulties finding a publisher accepting new writers, I decided to look into Print on Demand (POD) publishing.  POD uses digital technology to print one book at a time relatively cheaply (but still not cheaply enough, as I found out).  I researched three of the top POD publishers--XLibris, BookSurge (run by Amazon), and AuthorHouse.  What I found was rather depressing. 

A big problem is that POD publishing is not highly looked upon by most readers, reviewers, and booksellers, mainly because very few of the publishers actually screen the submissions.  Little Miss Wanna B. Awriter off the street can use it and call herself a published author.

Then there are the fees. $500-$700 just for the basic service! If you want marketing help or promo kits, those will cost $100s extra.

And finally, what you end up with is a 5.5"x8.5" trade paperback that you can really only buy online for the astonishing price of $21.99 (XLibris), $14.99 (BookSurge), or approx. $11.95 (AuthorHouse).  That doesn't include shipping costs.  Who in their right mind is going to pay those prices for a little paperback book by an author they've never heard of?  All the marketing campaigns in the world wouldn't help sell a first novel at those prices. 

Now, if I were the outgoing type, I could buy thousands of my books myself, at the much more reasonable price of $4.40 (for 2000+ books at XLibris) or $4.50 (for 1000+ books at BookSurge), and attempt to sell them on my own.  Since I'm not the outgoing type, I'd more likely just end up with thousands of unsold novels molding in my garage.

While researching this avenue of publishing, I came across a very good article <a href="http://www.sfwa.org/beware/printondemand.html "><strong>here</strong></a>.  This is part of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America website (whose <a href="http://www.sfwa.org/beware/"><strong>Writer Beware</strong></a> section is a superb source of info on many other related subjects), and a great overview of the problems associated with POD.  At the end of the article was a link to another great site, <a href="http://dehanna.com/database.htm"><strong>The Original "For a Fee" Print-On-Demand Publisher Database</strong></a>.  I intend on reading through it carefully with highlighter in hand to see if there are better publishers than the ones I've already found.  I certainly hope so, but I'm not holding my breath.

I recently finished my first novel, after writing it on and off for over 15 years. Sigh. Now comes the not-so-fun part–trying to get the thing published. Double sigh. Already I am running into difficulties, and I haven’t even sent the manuscript to anyone yet. This is an on-going post on my progress.

There are four main ways to go about getting a book published nowadays. First, the traditional method. Send your manuscript to multiple publishing companies, and hope one doesn’t reject you. Second, use an agent. The agent, once you get one to accept you and your paper baby, does the leg work of finding you a publisher. Third, use print-on-demand or vanity publishing. A fourth, newer option, is to turn your story into an e-book and sell it online.

I tried the traditional method first. And promptly found out what every other aspiring author will also discover–there are a lot more writers other there than there are available publishing houses. I bought the 2005 Writer’s Market, sat down with my highlighter, and found those houses who: 1. accepted new authors
2. accepted unagented writers
3. accepted historical romances.

I found seven that sounded promising.

Of those seven, two weren’t taking new manuscripts, one had changed their guidelines and longer took romances, and one said look online for guidelines, but there were no guidelines online (I suppose that’s one way to cut down on the number of manuscripts sent in.)

One publisher didn’t allow any profanity whatsoever. Which was a bit of a problem, considering half the characters in my story are soldiers in the middle of a war. Soldiers tend to cuss a bit. Most people would probably swear from time to time when being shot at. For the sake of realism, I included the mildest of profanity (I don’t hold with it myself). On the other hand, after reading some of their published excerpts, I’m not sure I’d want them to publish my book. Talk about cheesy writing! I may be a new writer, but I’m not a new reader, and I know bad writing when I read it.

That left two publishers. But both these houses insisted on me being an aggressive marketer, down to submitting my market plan and describing what experience I had in advertising. Now, I’m very shy in person (I don’t like to even phone people I don’t know), and I have an extremely difficult time “selling myself.” That’s the main reason I wanted a publisher. If I was an outgoing self-promoter, ready to approach bookstores, newspapers, TV shows, etc. (these were actual requirements), I’d do vanity publishing, sell the books myself, and cut out the middle man.

So, the traditional publishing route looks to be a washout already. Unless I try to get an agent, which will probably be my next step…as soon as I get up the guts to contact one.

Next post…Print-On-Demand/Vanity publishing.