Some advice from a writer who’s been through some shit:
If you’re going to write a book, actually fucking do it, don’t visit a publisher first, their offices, not that they’d let you in. You do go in there and it’s like some sort of writer’s version of The Holocaust: Manuscripts everywhere, manuscripts stacked up like the corpses in those godawful old death camp newsreels; manuscripts as door stops, manuscripts jammed between the air conditioner and the window sash to keep the foul air in; manuscripts peeking out from other manuscripts, two manuscripts – maybe a Civil War anthology and a cookbook – riffled together like decks of playing cards shuffled but not squared; manuscripts on the doorsill with muddy boot prints on the title pages; manuscripts massively unread but all somehow soiled, and the shitball motherfucker behind the desk, if you can see him over another teetering pile, looks up from a John Grisham or Dan Brown paperback and gestures at a pile of manuscripts on the floor shaped vaguely like a chair, offering you a seat, saying with an accent from Stalag 17, “You haf a manuscript mit you? Ahhh. Put it over… zere.”
You find yourself at a publisher’s office, don’t go in the bathroom, maybe see some poor sap’s obsession and pain in there, the first chapter half gone, the pages having been torn off one by one, if you get my drift.
That’s how I feel about publishers.
And it doesn’t get much better with agents (I’ve had about 20) or editors.
The above passage is from my new book, Can’t You Get Along With Anyone? A Writer’s Memoir…
I’d like to offer you and your blog friends an e-book of it.
As writers, I guarantee it’ll spur some serious back and forth. Here you go. It’s free, give it a chance:
http://www.banditobooks.com/book.../
cygawa_web.pdf
Yes, I’m pasting this in, doing so with other blogs, so technically I guess I’m spamming. Flame me if you want, but after what I’ve been through – small stuff.
The book nearly killed me to write. Literally.Three times.
Here’s the Amazon page. Been on sale with them for two weeks and has 70 five-star reviews (out of 74) and broke 1,000 in sales ranking. Look at the reviews. You ever see responses like that to any book, let alone one about writing?
http://www.banditobooks.com/amazon
This reviewer pretty much summed up the word of mouth:
“With In Search of Captain Zero and now Can’t You Get Along With Anyone? I believe Allan Weisbecker is the greatest memoirist of our time.”
Mary Sands, Jack Magazine
Hey, you write, stay driven.
If you believe in your book, figure out a way to get it read.
Driven.
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