Disturbing article in Salon
[url=http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2004/03/22/midlist/]”Confessions of a midlist author.”[/url]
I’m not sure how this is related, but I was watching my lure skim through the water, it’d cleared up over the weekend, and I was amused: see, there was a little fish. Tiny fish. A fish about half the size of the lure, chasing that “bright, shiny object” coursing its way through the water.
“Grow up buddy, and we’ll play catch & release when you’re about five pounds heavier.”
Right. Talking to fish again. Not even big fish, little ones.
I wandered off to the post office to put the book manuscript in the mail. I meant to head in one direction, but with a pocketful of change from the weekend, no luck on the river, and the manuscript trusted to postal employees, I just figured I would head towards Amy’s. And Bookpeople. I wandered around, trying to remember the name of that book someone recommended to me, something Tim Dorsey said. [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312291140/fishinguideto-20]Buck Fever[/url]. Picked it up and another paperback, and headed to check out line with a fishing magazine. I looked at the total before I signed the charge slip. That magazine cost $9.99. More than either individual book.
Weird.
Maybe it’s not so weird.
That long phone conversation with my psychic friend, Sunday morning? It was about a book she’s working on, the outline’s been greenlighted by a publisher. But there were certain marketing considerations – and more important – marketing concessions.
At what point is it selling out? All I pointed out was how to fashion material that makes a package more attractive to a publisher. Not that I’m any good at that myself. I’ve stubbornily refused to change up my own material to make it better suited for a particular market.
Whatever you do, don’t quote Hamlet Act II, scene two, the character Polonius, back at me. Read the whole passage – I can be a stickler about context.