Figuring out which one, two, three…four, five, six…er — quit counting, EJ — novels to share here, and then working out blurbs and searching out text excerpts from them which will not give out any real meat of the story, but, instead, just give out enough stimulation to invite a reader to investigate — that’s what I’ve been muddling with today. And I managed to put four of my present works up for sampling: B&A, AVS, Seeds, and More Than- (None of which are their real titles, of course).
The several I meant to get up didn’t make it, though, specifically CE, O, R, R2, and S. Why? Because I found them very difficult to hedge “what’s the story about,” and get something up there which made any real sense. I mean, even when the high concept is rife with core significance, hiding and hedging gets really tough.
And I am finding it hard to avoid giving out too much of “what the story is about,” never mind the plot and the characters. I mean that IS what I want my reader to know, straight off, right — what the story is about, who the story is about, and why they should really want to read it? So that’s what I’m pretty darn good at. But when dealing with this medium, specifically the wide-open Internet, you just can’t afford to take chances on exposing too much of a very good thing because, quite honestly, there are just so many others out there ready and waiting to snap up your good ideas. Just look at what Fox did!
Taking a cue, I guess, from that film company that did that wonderful job taking that historian’s book on the Crusades and making it into a movie…without buying the rights, now we have Fox blatantly ripping off the book Forever by Peter Hamill — http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070829/ap_en_ot/the_immortal_idea – to create a TV show, again without paying Hamill for the rights. Let me tell you, since “ideas cannot be copyrighted,” well, an author has to get a bit creative in NOT giving the vultures out there any meat until and unless they actually pay for it…not that they will, but, hey, one can always hope that there is somebody honest once your work is in print. (Didn’t work for the historian or for Hamill, but let’s not give up all home.)
So, for me, it was a matter of developing a new skill rather instantly — how to intrigue and interest without actually letting the reader in on what’s actually going on.
I didn’t do too good a job. …But I didn’t do too badly, either. I mean, considering that authors spend years training ourselves to actually write blurbs and teasers to let an agent, editor, and reader have a good solid taste of “what the story is about,” doing the opposite is not an easy task. But, who am I to judge? Instead, you tell me: NOVELS. Did I “do good?” 
Meanwhile, do me a favor, would you? Boycott Fox and buy Peter Hamill’s book.
…Oh, and while we’re on about books…and reading, Steve Moshe wrote an excellent article: http://howtogetpublishedstrong.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-to-get-published.html. What especially intrigues me are the statistics he mentions – eighty percent of Americans want to write a book…but no more than fifty-seven percent have even read a book in the last twelve months? Wow! I wonder how many of those books the fifty-seven percent actually bought and paid for at full price? Not many, I’m betting. What say you?
Recently:
- Moving is Tough on Writing Novels
- Move complete & back online…when the DSL doesn’t falter
- Offline for a week.
- The ‘I’ Proposition
- No, I didn’t get eaten by my novel.
- Scott Heim reads We Disappear at last reading at Chelsea
- Hunger in the World
- What a Beta Reader Can & Cannot Do
- A Gift for Eternity Finds a Home
- Today’s Giggle: SE vs Employee, the Benefits — Not.
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