Postscripts

THE WRITING CLINIC

What makes one piece of writing easy to read while another will cause readers' eyes to glaze over? The mysterious ingredient of good writing is a quality best described as readability. But how can a writer achieve readability? And is there a way of measuring it? Although certain computer programs offer a so-called readability measurement feature, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to check the readability of any piece of writing? To have a simple and completely portable yardstick for measuring reading ease? A way of quantitatively measuring readability? A way of making sure that what you have written is aimed at the intended audience?

Wait a minute! There is just such a formula: Robert Gunning’s largely forgotten “Fog Index.” It’s an easy-to-remember way of determining readability. In 1944, Gunning, a 36-year-old Ohio editor, quit his job and started a consulting business still not listed in the government’s index of occupations. The specialty of Robert Gunning Associates was counseling in clear writing—showing businesses how they could improve the readability of their communications.

Gunning’s clients included large corporations like the Standard Oil Co. and General Motors, United Press International, and newspapers such as the Louisville Courier-Journal, Hartford Courant, Washington Star, and Wall Street Journal, whose legendary editor Bernard Kilgore became a disciple. Gunning preached what most writers had long known—that certain factors played a part in readability: first and foremost, average sentence length in words, with the proportion of simple sentences, strong verb forms, familiar words, abstract words, long words and personal references all playing strong supporting roles.

Gunning's Readability Formula
Until that time, readability measurement had been the exclusive province of educators. But their formulas were complicated and required the laborious counting of certain not easily discerned factors. Many systems—even the highly touted yardsticks of readability guru Rudolph Flesch—employed four-decimal-place multipliers that were difficult to remember and gave a false sense of scientific accuracy.

Gunning discovered that only two qualities were critical to determining readability: the average number of words in sentences plus the percentage of “hard” words that might cause a reader to stumble. In his 1952 book, The Technique of Clear Writing, he described how to apply his innovative “Fog Index,” which is ideal for any kind of copy. It’s simple to calculate and easy to carry in your head.

1. Count the number of words in successive sentences. In a long piece, take several 100-word samples distributed evenly throughout. (Stop the sentence count with the sentence that ends nearest each 100-word total.) Divide the total number of words in each sample by the number of sentences. This yields the average sentence length of the copy.

2. Count the number of words of three syllables or more per 100 words. Don’t count proper names, word combinations of short words (i.e., bookkeeper, manpower, etc.) or three-syllable plural or past-tense verb forms as a result of adding -ed or -es (i.e., created or trespasses). This figure is the percentage of “hard” words in the copy.

3. Add these two numbers and multiply the result by 0.4.

This yields the Fog Index, which correlates exactly with school grade reading levels as determined by the McCall-Crabbs Standard Test Lessons in Reading. Thus, if your copy is addressed to a hypothetical audience with a fifth-grade educational level, the Fog Index of the tested copy should be no higher than 5.

The following table compares the Fog Index with reading levels by grade.

Fog Index Reading Level By Grade
17: College graduate
16: College senior
15 : College junior
14: College sophomore
13: College freshman
---------D A N G E R L I N E--------
12: High school senior
11: High school junior
---------EASY READING BELOW THIS LINE---------
10: High school sophomore
09: High school freshman
08: 8th grade
07: 7th grade
06: 6th grade
05: 5th grade

Cautions about Readability Measurements
A “sentence” in Gunning’s terms is not always the distance between a capital letter and a period, which makes it ideal for the punchy writing of direct mail copy. Units of thought (marked off by semicolons, colons, dashes or ellipsis points) are treated as sentences and so are independent clauses. An independent clause (sometimes called a main clause) is a group of words that make a complete statement, no matter what punctuation comes before or after. Such a clause can stand as a regular sentence, beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period. Or several independent clauses may be separated by semicolons or commas. (For example, J.N. Hook’s parody of Julius Caesar in his Guide to Good Writing contains three independent clauses: “She came, I saw, she conquered.”) What is a “word” sometimes causes trouble, too. In applying the Fog Index, we may define a word as anything with white space on either side of it.

If your copy tests 13 or more, you are beyond Gunning’s danger line of reading difficulty, and your readers are likely to find what you have written to be heavy going.

After measuring the readability of magazines, Gunning discovered a correlation between a magazine’s circulation and his Fog Index. Magazines with the highest mass appeal had the lowest average sentence length and the lowest percentage of difficult words.

Gunning also applied his formula to books and found a direct relationship between a low Fog Index and popularity. Still in print, Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling Gone with the Wind has a 6th grade reading level. Peyton Place also scores a 6. Mickey Spillane’s hard-boiled novels come in at 5, as do the works of Harold Robbins. J.D. Salinger, John Cheever and Truman Capote all average a Fog Index of 7, not markedly lower than Somerset Maugham, Sinclair Lewis or Ernest Hemingway. Harper Lee’s prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird has a Fog Index of 5, which must account for its astonishing continuing sales in the millions and its presence on nearly every school reading list.

Applying his formula, Gunning gave English poet John Milton a Fog Index of 26. This was 11 points higher than Lincoln’s 269-word Gettysburg Address, which came in at 15. Gunning, who died in 1980, believed that 16 to 20 words was a good average word count for sentences in newspaper articles.

A low Fog Index for copy you have written is merely an assurance that the piece can be easily read by the widest audience—that readers of it will be induced to move along from one sentence to the next without stumbling and without excessive demands on their attention. The Fog Index cannot make you or anyone a great writer. Rather it is a measure of complexity in writing—for determining whether a piece of copy is geared to its intended audience. The Fog Index is a measuring tool, but only for use after you have written, not as a pattern before you write. “Good writing must be alive,” Gunning advised. “Don’t kill it with a system.”

Users of Robert Gunning’s Fog Index should recognize two things: First, reading ease isn’t only the ease of understanding words, phrases and sentences. There’s also the problem of how sentences relate to one another in a paragraph and how the paragraphs themselves relate. Any measure of word- or sentence-difficulty certainly correlates with overall reading difficulty, but it’s no exaggeration to say that there are writers who use simple words and write short sentences, yet whose copy isn’t a pleasure to read.

The Fog Index really is related to comprehensibility. It’s not necessarily about genuine readability—the property of copy that makes a reader want to keep on reading. Making something easier to read doesn’t always make it more interesting or more desirable to read. Using shorter sentences and simpler words indeed does yield copy comprehensible to a wider audience, but an increase in comprehensibility will not of itself make for greater readability.

It’s easy enough for writers to raise the comprehensibility of their copy by training themselves to write in short bursts and to choose less complicated words. Writing truly readable copy is quite another matter and less easily learned—you must cultivate an ear for the rhythms of the rich language that is English. Effective copy is not only clear and reads easily, but it also will sound right. In editing your copy (and it’s rare copy indeed that cannot be made better with one more revision), you should read not only for sense, but for euphony—the agreeableness of what you’ve written and its pleasurable effect on the ear (and thus on the eye). In short, try listening to your copy, even going so far as playing it back to yourself on a tape recorder.

A good writer takes the problem of writing seriously and attempts to marry comprehensibility and readability. It’s not easy to develop and maintain the skill of simple writing while at the same time keeping an ear open for the aptness of phrase and sentence. Only then will you succeed at the art that none of us will ever fully master—using the tools and the building blocks in the storehouse of language to create a deceptively simple structure of complex thoughts and emotions to entice readers and move them to action. The paradox is, of course, that if the simplicity is obvious, you have failed.

Labels: Readability, Readability Measurement, The Writing Clinic, Writers and Writing

THE WRITING CLINIC

If authors share one complaint, it's that publishers don't do enough to promote their books. What will a publisher do to publicize a book by a new author? The answer is, not very much--unless a lot of money was advanced to the author against anticipated royalties. A publisher's' willingness to promote a "title" (the term publishers prefer to us to refer to a book) will often be proportional to how much a publisher has invested in the book in the form of such advances.

This, by the way, is the single best reason for authors--or their literary agents, if they have managed to get a reputable agent to handle their work--to try for sizable advance when negotiating a book contract. But remember that a publisher will not advance more than a book will generate in royalties and sales of subsidiary rights (i.e., paperback, book club and foreign rights). Book publishing can be a risky business, and some books disappoint both author and publisher by failing to earn their advances.

Dozens of new titles are added to major publishers' lists each season. Such numbers make it impossible for any publishing house to get behind every book. As a result, works by new authors often languish while so-called "blockbusters" get all the attention. Frustrated authors are convinced that their books would earn more if publishers had simply advertised them more. Not necessarily, say publishers. For every book that becomes a bestseller because of advertising, they can point to another that failed in spite of heavy promotion.

Consider two classic case histories: In 1985, after resigning as Ronald Reagan's budget director, David A. Stockman signed a contract with Harper and Row, said to be worth more than $2 million--then the largest advance that publisher had ever paid for a book. Thanks to an all-out publicity campaign, The Triumph of Politics, Stockman's kiss-and-tell account of life inside the Reagan administration, started out as number one on bestseller lists. However, when readers discovered that Stockman had little new to say about how the massive deficit he masterminded had gotten so far out of control, his heavy-handed book dropped from the top spot a scant two weeks later.

Other titles have climbed the bestseller charts without benefit of advertising. An often-cited example is Blue Highways, whose author, William Least Heat-Moon, rewrote the manuscript eight times before selling it. Published in 1982 by Little, Brown and Company, this account of one man's travels in a battered van named "Ghost Dancing" over the back roads of America--the ones printed in blue on road maps that were once the main arteries of early travel and now only link backwater towns--aroused strong feelings in readers. Of English-Irish and Osage Indian ancestry, the author's curious surname, Heat-Moon, is the Sioux name for the moon of midsummer nights.

After the nearly simultaneous loss of his college teaching job and the failure of his marriage, he embarked on a 13,000-mile trip across America, visiting forgotten small towns and talking to their colorful inhabitants. The book's initial promotion had been limited to an excerpt in The Atlantic Monthly. But readers who bought Blue Highways discovered that, as the Chicago Tribune said, it was "better than Kerouac." Reviewer Robert Penn Warren called the book "a masterpiece. [The author] has a genius for finding people who have not even found themselves." Other enthusiastic newspaper reviews made Blue Highways into what the book trade calls a "sleeper," and booksellers' orders surged. Only then did the surprised publisher crank up an ad campaign to match its bestseller status.

The Business of Bookselling
Bookselling operates like no other business model. Moreover, most authors are abysmally ignorant about book publishing, an industry still largely saddled with practices dating back to the early 20th century. Chief among these is the privilege publishers accord to booksellers of returning unsold books for creditagainst future orders..

In recent years, the number of unsold books reached uneconomical proportions, with as many as 50% of books ordered by booksellers remaining on store shelves. This figure has since dropped to 40% as a consequence of more prudent ordering on the part of retailers, but it still means four out of every ten books ordered are being returned to distributors or publishers. These books are then replaced in stock and used to fill future orders . When the time comes to declare a book "out of print," publishers sell the remaining copies in large lots to specialized dealers as "remainders." These are then retailed at reduced prices to readers through specialized catalogs . Authors get no royalties on remaindered books. Perhaps if writers better understood how books are merchandised, friction between authors and publishers would diminish. Similarly, with more and more authors embarking on self- publishing ventures, awareness of the intricacies of retail bookselling can help to avoid headaches.

The selling of a book actually starts many months before it is published. At sales conferences held twice a year, usually at a hotel near the publisher's offices, editors "present" forthcoming titles to their sales staff. Originally called "book travelers," sales people are today more prosaically described as sales reps, publishing consultants or even account managers.

Following these meetings, the publisher's specialized sales force fans out across broad territories to call on a dwindling number of independent booksellers. At each outlet, they echo those presentations in negotiations with bookstore owners or book buyers for chain stores, soliciting--even pleading for--orders. Predicting customer interest in a title not yet set in type can be a gamble for individual bookstore owners and chain-store book buyers. Yet it is these advance orders from booksellers that govern the size of the initial press run for each title.

In the United States, 190,478 individual titles were published in 2004, the latest year for which firm statistics are available. Of these, 24,159 were so-called trade books (fiction and nonfiction sold in bookstores, as contrasted with specialized professional, technical and reference books). Preliminary figures for 2005 indicate slippage in the total number of titles--some 18,000 fewer titles were published last year--an unsurprising reduction considering the steadily rising costs of paper, presswork and binding. Competing with such an avalanche of new titles in any year are several hundred thousand previously published titles still in print, referred to as the publisher's "backlist." With so many books clamoring for the limited space on bookstore shelves and for the reading public's attention, the chances that any bookseller will order a new title by a first-time author are exceedingly small.

Advice from Literary Agents
What can an author do when a publisher budgets next to nothing for advertising and does little in the way of promotion? New York literary agent Bill Adler advises: "The first rule for success in book publishing is that the best person to promote your book is you. Don't count on the publisher to do it for you."

Another New York agent, Richard Curtis, is equally emphatic: "If you feel that the only thing holding book back from success is the expenditure of a little money, and you can't persuade your publisher to spend it--then spend it yourself." Good advice. But don't rush out to buy advertising. Your money will go farther if spent in other ways. Besides, if your book isn't in local bookstores, any money you spend on advertising will be wasted. Readers who have been made eager to read a book don't want to hear the disappointing words, "Sorry, we don't have that title in stock--but we can order it for you."

Once a date has been set for publication of your book (called the "pub date" by publishers), you, the author, must move swiftly. The initial thrust of your self-promotion should be to increase awareness of your book within the book trade, with specialized review and media outlets, and among librarians in the crucial period leading up to your book's pub date. A book that's not on the shelves of most retailers on its pub date and that has escaped the notice of reviewers and librarians is a sure bet to be overlooked by readers. After publication, you should shift your attention to the media and to media personalities likely to give your book a post-publication push with the reading public.

Do-It-Yourself Promotion
The ideal self-promotional tool for authors, whether published by a traditional publisher or self-published, is direct mail, the second-largest advertising medium in use today. Direct mail's success stems from its ability to command instant attention from specifically targeted recipients at comparatively low-cost. With the explosion of vanity press and print-on-demand books, a promotional campaign of direct mailings in advance of publication is really the only medium open to authors of self-published books.

Can direct-mailings by an author pay dividends? You bet. Consider the experience of novelist Terry McMillan. Because Houghton Mifflin, publisher of her first novel, Mama, had planned virtually no publicity, McMillan launched a letter-writing campaign to booksellers and reviewers. In addition, she arranged and paid for a post-publication reading tour to promote her story of a poverty-stricken unmarried black mother's struggle to raise five children.

That was in 1987. Two years later, unhappy with her original publisher, the 37-year-old African-American writer took her second novel, Disappearing Acts, to Viking Press, where it became a bestseller. Without the first novel's successful publicity generated by author McMillan's own self-promotion efforts, it's unlikely she would have earned strong publisher support for her second novel. In 1992, to promote her third novel, Waiting to Exhale, Viking Press paid for an intensive six-week, 20-city author tour, and her book skyrocketed to near the top of fiction bestseller lists. Pocket Books bought paperback rights for a cool $2.64 million.

When movie rights were sold to this story of four females friends looking for love, 20th Century-Fox allotted a mere $15 million to the production budget, not expecting it to have much "crossover" appeal for white audiences. The 1995 film, directed by Forest Whitaker and starring Whitney Houston, Angela Basset, Loretta Devine and Lela Rochon, became a surprise hit, grossing almost $68 million domestically. The budding novelist and self-promoter suddenly became a millionaire.

The success of McMillan's books and films made her a hot property. In 1996, her novel How Stella Got Her Groove Back, about the relationship between a woman and a much younger man, became an instant bestseller, and movie rights were snapped up by 20th Century-Fox. Produced for $20 million, the 1998 grossed nearly $38 million. Terry McMillan co-wrote the screenplays of both films. Film rights to her second novel, Disappearing Acts,were bought by MGM and later resold to an independent production company. The resulting 2000 TV movie, with sizzling performances by Wesley Snipes and Sanaa Lathan, was shown on HBO.

Mailing Lists and Letters
The renting of mailing lists is the cornerstone of direct mail. But ours is a mobile society, and rented lists quickly become dated unless their names and addresses have been verified recently--the procedure is called "cleaning." Some letters will inevitably be returned because of what mailers call "bum addresses." The objective of list cleaning is to keep these to a minimum. List rental can be expensive, too--averaging about $100 per 1,000 names.

One low-cost solution is to prepare your own mailing lists. Drawing names from the directories listed at the end of this article, you can compile your own local, regional and national lists of booksellers, wholesalers, book reviewers, librarians, radio and TV talk-show hosts or program directors. Don't overlook off-trail possibilities. If your book is a history of cutlery thought the ages, you'd be wise to compile lists of organizations with interests in knives and cutlery, particularly those that publish newsletters or bulletins for members.

Resist the urge to pick up the phone to call persons on the lists you compile. Unsolicited telephone calls are intrusive and often result in a negative response. A well-organized letter touting your book is always better. In the public relations field, these are called "pitch letters." With your computer's mail-merge program, you can easily generate personalized letters, labels and envelopes. For the ultimate in personalization, addressing your envelopes by hand will spark curiosity and increase the chances that the letter will reach the addressee and be opened. Make your pitch short and to the point. Keep your letters positive in tone. Their sole purpose is to create interest in your book--and in you. Remember that successful direct mail always promises benefits to the recipient.

When writing to librarians and book reviewers, make your book sound interesting or exciting. To newspaper feature editors, make your book--and you--the focus of the story. When pitching booksellers, emphasize its sales appeal and the intensive publicity campaign you are mounting. Letters to radio and TV program directors should portray your book as all of the above, and present you as a colorful, lively and desirable guest. Avoid the pedestrian. Be imaginative. Lead off in the first paragraph with a challenging fact or provocative statistic to catch attention. Nonfiction writers will recognize this as "the hook," a time-honored technique for beginning an article.

The body of your letters should describe in broad terms what makes your book--and you--noteworthy. Summarize its theme, offer supporting facts, quote critics' advance praise, highlight the importance of the subject, underscore your availability and stress the book's reader appeal or listener interest. Your letters should also make clear exactly what you're asking for: a book review; an order; a meeting; an interview with a reporter and a feature story; an appearance on a radio or TV show. Conclude letters addressed locally by saying that you will telephone in a few days to follow up. Pitching letters to big names also can be fruitful. A well-known expert might be willing to read the manuscript or galleys of your book and write a foreword or jacket blurb. Imagine what a few kind words from Dr. C. Everett Koop, would do for the sales of a book on health care. Remember, it costs almost nothing to ask.

Pitching to Booksellers
Your letters to booksellers should, of course, encourage them to order your book. Dealers who neglected to stock it may be prompted to do so by a strong pitch letter. Dealers who ordered only a few copies may decide to increase their order. Only when your book is widely available in bookstores should you think about spending money on advertising.

The number of retail book outlets, especially independent booksellers, fell dramatically in the United States in recent years. An idea of the severity of the decline can be gleaned from the following statistics: In 1995, the American Booksellers Association, based in Tarrytown, N.Y., numbered more than 5,500 members with about 7,000 stores. Five years later membership was down to 3,100 members and 4,000 locations. Today, this trade group of book retailers has only 1,800 members and 2,500 locations. Don't overlook the importance of chain bookstores in book distribution today--including the new superstores--with centralized buying facilities. This means that one buyer does the ordering for many outlets, and any book order will likely be a big one. Major book wholesalers and distributors are desirable contacts, too.

Every author should make friends with local booksellers. Follow up your letters to them with a telephone call and then a visit in person. Having your book in a prized spot in a bookseller's display window can make a big difference in the number of copies sold. Suggest a traditional in-store autographing party. At these, you will talk about the writing of your book, chat with customers and autograph the copies they buy. If wine and cheese are served, your publisher may underwrite that cost.

Because customers rely on their recommendations, independent retailers can still play a major role in a book's success even though their numbers are dwindling. A case in point is Robert James Waller's 1992 novel, The Bridges of Madison County, a tender story of the brief love affair between a lonely Iowa farm wife and a magazine photographer, and how it haunts them for the rest of their lives. As with many other first novels, the publisher, Warner Books, made no special effort to publicize Waller's book. Enter Warren Cassell, owner of Just Books, a tiny independent bookstore in Greenwich, Connecticut. Cassell praised Waller's book in his store's newsletter as "one of the finest first novels we have ever read," certain to be on "our life list of favorite novels." Booksellers everywhere shared his enthusiasm. Word-of-mouth praise kept The Bridges of Madison County on bestseller charts until it reached the number one spot early in 1993 and remained there tenaciously. Just Books, the store that originally ordered only three copies of this unheralded work, eventually sold more than a thousand copies.

Pitching to Librarians
In pitching a direct-mail publicity campaign, don't ignore libraries, especially regional library systems with centralized purchasing. Local public libraries or nearby college and university libraries are also good targets. Librarians like to have the works of local authors represented in their collections. Although librarians are strongly influenced by reviews of forthcoming books in such publications as Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly, these publications cannot evaluate every new title. A personal letter from the author can make librarians aware of a new book they otherwise might have overlooked. The buying power of the 34,296 libraries in the United States and Canada is impressive. In fact, librarians buy one of every three trade books published. And, unlike individual book buyers, larger libraries often buy multiple copies of popular titles for their main and branch libraries.

Pitching to Reviewers
It's accepted dogma in publishing that a good review does more for sales than any advertisement. This makes review copies inexpensive tools for self-promotion. All publishers maintain mailing lists of the book reviewers to whom review copies are sent, and they will usually share these lists with their authors. Classified according to size, the publication's circulation and its clout with readers, these are referred to as their A, B and C lists. With them in hand, you can easily compile your own mailing lists of reviewers at newspapers and magazines that are not on the publisher's lists. When a preliminary dummy of your book jacket is available, mail a photocopy of it and the table of contents with a cover letter to such untapped reviewers. Ask them to note at the bottom of your letter whether they would like to receive a review copy, and include a return envelope to make responding easy. Publishers will welcome the names of such reviewers who express an interest in receiving your book--especially if you provide the addresses on peel-off labels. Your publisher can afford to be generous with review copies; authors are paid no royalties on books distributed for promotional purposes.

Other Promotional Possibilities
Sales of subsidiary rights are important sources of additional income for both publishers and authors. These rights can include sales to book clubs, paperback publishers, or movies and TV, as well as the marketing of foreign rights and serial (magazine) rights. Your publisher will probably touch base with the major players in these leagues. But don't be timid about doing a little horn-blowing on your own in the form of personalized letters to book club acquisition editors and other subsidiary rights buyers.

The Truth About Author Tours
Many writers dream of author tours, but a tour can be expensive. Airfares, hotels, meals and incidentals make this a particularly costly form of advertising for publishers. The fact is that certain books--first novels, children's books, and some kinds of nonfiction--often don't lend themselves to all the chores. Moreover as the late Fran Harris, longtime Detroit newscaster and radio and TV interviewer, pointed out to this writer, "many authors simply aren't good at impromptu conversation, or are uncomfortable before a camera or microphone, making them poor candidates for tours." Nevertheless, if you're convinced that a tour is essential to the success of your book and your publisher won't underwrite it, there's nothing stopping you from personally financing the tour.

Writers also can tour their books without even leaving home. "Radio interviews conducted over the telephone are the hottest way of promoting books today," says Rick Frischman, president of Planned TV Arts, a New York and Washington booking agency for author tours. "We've booked authors Bill Moyers, James Michener, Arnold Palmer, Jane Bryant Quinn, Alan Dershowitz, and others on our 'Morning Drive Radio Tours' with great success."

The Wayne Dyer Story
The undisputed all-time self-promotion champ is Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. In 1976, he was an associate professor at St. John's University and a practicing therapist. That year Funk & Wagnalls published his Your Erroneous Zones, a book based on his own experience and describing how to reverse unhealthy behavior patterns .

Convinced that he needed to take control of his life and to stop worrying about being bald or feeling guilty about his divorce, he decided to write a bestseller. After spending two years in reflection, he wrote the book in 13 days. When the prestigious New York Times Book Review failed to review his book, the 36-year-old Dyer decided to do his own promotion. Taking leave from his faculty post as a guidance counselor, he loaded his station wagon with copies of his book and began his self-financed promotional tour that took him to every state in the United States. People magazine called his effort "a self-marketing tour de force."

Making himself available for talk show interviews at any hour of the day or night, he soon propelled his book to the top of bestseller charts and kept it there for well over a year. Avon Books later bought the paperback rights, paying one of the highest prices then on record. Other best-selling self-help titles followed, all promoted by Dyer in the same way. He never returned to teaching and gave up his private practice and moved to Hawaii. Aggressive self-promotion had made him a millionaire. Today, Dyer is a fixture on public television, where he preaches his inspirational philosophy and hawks his books and associated products.

Why Self-promotion?
Unless you're an established author, it's unlikely that any publisher will provide your book with much in the way of advertising and promotion. The publisher's efforts will, in most cases, be perfunctory and largely futile. It's up to you, the author, to do everything you can to promote your book. But you must be ready to move quickly. As in perhaps no other industry, the timing of a book's promotional campaign is critical. The average book has the reading public's attention for only a few weeks or even days. A book's shelf life is--in humorist Calvin Trillin's words--"somewhere between milk and yogurt." The window of opportunity for the promotion of your book will be open ever so briefly. As the author, you must seize the moment. Self-promotion is no longer an option; it's a basic survival tactic.



Build your own mailing lists of booksellers, librarians, book reviewers, and radio and TV programs that feature books and authors by using the following books available from public libraries. Many are also available on databases through regional library systems and larger public libraries.

BOOK DEALERS
American Book Trade Directory lists 30,000 retail and antiquarian book dealers in the U.S. and Canada, and over 1,000 wholesalers and paperback distributors.

LIBRARIANS
American Library Directory lists 34,296 U.S. and Canadian libraries, including public, armed forces, government and special libraries.

REVIEWERS, NEWS BUREAUS, SYNDICATES
Bacon's Newspaper/Magazine Directory lists `8,000 trade and consumer magazines, newsletters and journals, including ethnic and university newspapers.
Editor & Publisher International Yearbook lists daily and Sunday newspapers in the U.S. and Canada, weekly newspapers, newspaper syndicates.
Literary Market Place lists selected news services and feature syndicates, book reviewers at newspapers and magazine, and book clubs. Also lists selected radio and TV programs featuring books.
Standard Periodical Directory has more than 56,000 listings of U.S. and Canadian periodicals.
Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory lists more than 280,000 periodicals by 90,000 publishers in over 300 countries.

RADIO AND TV
Bacon's Radio/TV/Cable Directory lists every U.S. and Canadian broadcast outlet, with names of producers, assignment editors and reporters.

Labels: Authorship, Book Promotion, The Writing Clinic, Writers and Writing

THE WRITING CLINIC

Few freelance writers ever meet the editors who buy what they write. Your query letters or manuscript submissions thus become silent ambassadors that can speak volumes about you as a writer. Many editors scan the piles of incoming unsolicited manuscripts each morning looking for material worth a closer look. They also are looking for obvious errors in grammar, spelling or punctuation that can disqualify a manuscript or a writer. Even a few of these will cause your manuscript to be returned to you with dizzying swiftness, accompanied by an uninformative printed rejection slip.

An arbitrary way of screening submissions? Yes--but today's editorial offices are deluged with eminently publishable manuscripts. Writers who expect editors to clean up their errors never become published writers. Editors are looking for polished writers with professional skills. Other less obvious telltale clues in what you send also can subtly identify you as an inexperienced writer, inviting pitiless summary rejection. Your aim should be to make editors see you as a seasoned professional on the basis of what you submit. Here are some do's and don'ts to make this happen:

Manuscript Preparation
Don't use paper of an odd size or color. Use 8-1\2 by 11-inch white paper. And don't try to attract attention to your manuscript by using an exotic typeface. Editors who must read manuscripts all day don't relish having to decipher unusual fonts.

You can't go wrong if you print your manuscript in Courier, which resembles a typewriter face. A 12- or 10-point size is adequate; these are the approximate equivalents of the former typewriter designations of Pica and Elite type.Times Roman is a popular and easy-to-read newspaper typeface. Sans-serif faces--Helvetica or Arial--may be used for technical or engineering manuscripts. Avoid small-sized type (called by editors "mouse type").

Show paragraph indents. You should type or print your manuscript in flushed-left blocked paragraphs only if the targeted publication uses this style. Similarly, don't insert subheads in your copy unless the publication uses subheads. Use of improper paragraphing or subheads tells an editor that you haven't studied the magazine you're targeting.

Use double-line spacing between lines. Editors need space in which to write changes or corrections. Do not justify the lines in your manuscript on the right. This can introduce disconcerting unequal spaces between words and sentences.

Beware of overlong manuscript paragraphs of 15 or 20 lines. A paragraph that might be appropriate for a book page becomes annoyingly long and unattractive when set in the narrower measure of a magazine or newspaper. To make sure your paragraphs are of proper length, copy a few selected paragraphs from the targeted publication to the same width as your manuscript. The paragraphs in your copy should average the same number of lines as those you copied.

Don't ignore traditional formatting for your manuscript. Every page after the first page should show in an upper corner what editors call a "slug." (The word comes from the piece of lead cast by "hot-metal" typesetting machines.) The slug should include your last name, the title of the work or article, or a shortened tag line to identify it, and the manuscript page number.

Manuscripts are often passed from editor to editor for comment. On a desk crowded with manuscripts, pages from one manuscript can easily get mixed with others. A slug on every page makes it easy to identify the piece and to reassemble the pages in correct order.

Proofread your manuscript carefully--and always in hard copy rather than on a computer screen. The latter practice tends to cause subtle errors to be overlooked. Never submit a manuscript with uncorrected typographical errors. Editors cannot be blamed for thinking that writers who are careless about errors also may be careless with details or facts. Minor corrections in ink on manuscript copy are not only permissible but are desirable--they show that you read the manuscript before mailing it.

As a writer, you may be called upon to make corrections in proofs returned to you for checking--but don't create your own marks. Instead, study standard proofreaders' marks, a logical and easy-to-learn shorthand universally understood by editors and typesetters.

Finally, make sure your manuscript is neat and inviting to read, with adequate margins. An old-time vaudevillian once offered me some theatrical wisdom. "In show business," he said, "performers are often 'at liberty' and looking for a booking. Appearance was important. In fact, we used to say, 'When you're down to your last quarter, don't eat--get a shine.'" Inflation may have played hob with the value of a quarter, but it's still good advice for a writer. Give your manuscripts a shine.

Query Letters and Cover Letters
There's a difference between the two types of letters. The purpose of a query letter is to save writers the labor of writing an article or short story for which there is no market. But never write a query letter unless your research for the piece you are proposing to write is virtually complete. The purpose of a cover letter is merely to accompany a manuscript submitted in response to an editor's request or one submitted "on spec" (on speculation)--in the hope that it will find favor with an editor.

A supply of tastefully printed letterheads and envelopes is a good investment for a writer. But don't describe yourself in your letterhead as a "Writer," "Freelance Writer" or "Author," even if you have already been published. This is the mark of an amateur and elicits smiles in editorial offices. Good writing will earn you recognition as a writer, not a self-applied label.

Don't write a three-page query letter with lengthy synopses of your proposed piece and wordy biographical information. Show your ability to organize and convey information by being concise. A good query letter shouldn't exceed one page. After all, you're only seeking to encourage an answer.

Remember to give the word count of your proposed article in round numbers--but strictly adhere to any word limit an editor may set. No editor can squeeze a 2500-word article into space set aside for a 1200-word piece. Be sure to mention whether photos, illustrations, diagrams, graphs, tables or sidebars will be included.

Add a stamped and self-addressed envelope with every query to encourage response, but don't fold a standard No. 10 envelope for this purpose. An unfolded No. 9 envelope fits neatly inside a No. 10 envelope. A harried editor may scribble the words "Send it" on your query letter and return it in your envelope. With manuscript submissions, it's O.K. to include a self-addressed postcard reading, "Your manuscript submission has been received" and lines for a date and a signature.

Propose seasonal pieces well before pub dates. Suggesting a skiing article in October tells an editor that you are unaware of magazine lead times. Turn the seasons around--an article about swimming pool safety should be proposed with the first frost for use early next summer.

In a cover letter, don't waste an editor's time with long paragraphs extolling the merits of your submission. A publishable manuscript slanted to the targeted publication will sell itself every time. The cover letter's basic purpose is really only to identify and accompany the submitted manuscript.

Above all, don't phone the editor to ask whether your query or submission was received or to chat about it. Most editors work on tight deadlines and don't have time to chat with aspiring writers.

Submission as Hard Copy or E-mail?
The first question a writer must decide is whether to submit manuscripts as hard copy or via e-mail. My vote goes to hard-copy submission.Some publications invite manuscript submissions via e-mail. Submissions via e-mail should only be made to publications that refuse to accept manuscript submissions. Unfortunately, e-mail gives the writer little control of the submission's appearance at the receiving end, and most publications refuse to accept manuscripts sent as attachments. In my experience, hard copy is always more desirable, since it commands more attention, if only by its physical presence. With a manuscript at hand, an editor can only read it, jettison it or return it; e-mail can too easily be overlooked or even accidentally deleted.

Mail manuscripts flat. Don't fold a bulky manuscript and try to cram it in a No. 10 envelope. Send all manuscripts loose, although a paper clip on article manuscript pages is permissible. Never submit a manuscript in a three-ring binder, presentation binder, or with pages stapled together. Send bulky book manuscripts in nesting manuscript boxes. The inner box with your return address and proper postage applied will bring your book manuscript back to you.

It never hurts to make unsolicited submissions appear important by including a postage-paid return envelope. Some writers have the notion that inclusion of a traditional return envelope is tantamount to an invitation for an editor to return the unread manuscript to the writer.

Omission of a return envelope, however, also may say to an editor that you have no desire to see your manuscript again, that it has little value in your eyes. Thus, failure to include a return envelope may invite disposal in the nearest wastebasket, often without a reading. My vote is for a postage-paid return envelope.

A self-inking rubber stamp with your name and address in large capital letters for your return address also will add to the look of professionalism on your return envelopes. Alternatively, you can print return labels on your computer printer. select a readable typeface and follow USPS preferences: Capitalize all words, omit periods and commas, and use your two-letter state abbreviation. Add your 9-digit Zip Code.

On large return envelopes, avoid using those tiny gummed return-address labels distributed by charitable organizations; postal workers dislike them. Such labels are not intended for primary addresses--only for the return of undeliverable letters. Large-size envelopes, called "flats" by the USPS, are not machine-read but are hand-sorted.

Whether you are sending a query letter, a cover letter or a manuscript, always remember that you'll never get a second chance to make a first impression with an editor.

Labels: The Writing Clinic, Writers and Writing

THE WRITING CLINIC

Scratch the average person and there's sure to be a frustrated, would-be writer underneath. If you have wanted to try your hand at writing and didn't know how to begin, here are answers to some common questions would-be writers ask.

How can I get started?
Start thinking like a writer. Ideas for unwritten books, stories, articles, film scripts or poems are everywhere. Consider this true story: A police officer in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., buys a lottery ticket. Lacking small change and unable to leave a tip after breakfasting in a coffee shop, he promises to split his winnings with the waitress if his ticket wins. It does, and he does. Millions read this story in newspapers across the country. Yet it took screenwriter Jane Anderson to see its possibilities and turn it into the script for the 1994 hit film, It Could Happen to You, originally titled Cop Gives Waitress $2 Million Tip. Critics and moviegoers loved the film. We all have had personal experiences, or have some expertise, or are familiar with stories that could be set down on paper and sold successfully. Too many writers roam the world searching for ideas, and ignore the gems and nuggets lying at their feet.
Fiction, nonfiction, poetry?
Not surprisingly, your first decision should be to choose the genre you are most comfortable with. Are you a born storyteller? Then you should think in terms of writing fiction. You must then choose between writing a novel or short stories. If you are curious about the natural world, think about the possibility of writing nonfiction--a broad category that includes everything from magazine articles, essays and book reviews to full-length books, including memoirs and personal experiences. You can hone your nonfiction skills with letters to the editor of your favorite newspaper. Some would say that a novel is nothing more than a group of short stories with a common thread. Similarly, a nonfiction book may be compared to a collection of articles on a common theme. Poetry is perhaps the most demanding area and the least rewarding in terms of chances of publication and amount of payment.

It is not dismissive to say that in the beginning it doesn't matter what you write--it's the habit of writing that you want to cultivate. An oldster writing reminiscences as a contribution for the local historical society or a youngster attempting some avant garde poetry--their efforts all have worth and can find a home.

How should I record my ideas?
Keep a notebook, journal or diary. Inspiration can strike at any time. Memory is undependable and fleeting. Wise writers always keep a small notebook with them for jotting down ideas. Anne Lamott, author of  Bird by Bird, a book of advice for writers, favors index cards. She scatters them around the house and keeps some in the glove compartment of her car. Even when walking her dog, a pen and an index card are in her pocket. Recording the day's events, experiences, observations and ideas in a journal or diary at day's end is a useful practice. Years later, these notes will be there to spark memories. An old-fashioned composition book is excellent for this purpose.

How important is reading?
Every good writer is an inquiring reader. Reading is a way of training for writing. Successful writers are omnivorous readers and will read anything at hand: a dog-eared magazine in a doctor's waiting room, the breakfast food box on the kitchen table, even yesterday's day-old newspaper. If you hope to earn money from writing, read the writings of other writers for clues to the secret of their success.

The works of other writers also can have a positive effect on your style. Joseph Heller, author of "Catch-22," named the writings of Louis Ferdinand Celine and Vladimir Nabokov as the inspirations for his iconoclastic antiwar novel. Stephen King’s simple formula for learning to write well: “Read four hours a day and write four hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can’t expect to become a good writer.”

Careful analytical reading will make you more attuned to what successful writers are selling and what editors are buying. Even though you have subscribed to a magazine you hope to write for, you should study its style carefully. Count the number of sentences in paragraphs. Count the number of words in sentences. Does the magazine use the serial comma (a, b, and c) or omit it in a series of three or more items? You’ll be surprised at how much you can learn from such quantitative research. Learn to use all the tools (i.e., punctuation marks) in the writer's toolbox aside from the period and the comma: for example--the colon, semi-colon, long dash and other marks to give variety to your writing. Most magazines offer style sheets to writers who send a request accompanied by a stamped and addressed return envelope.

How should I do research?
Every writer should know how to use the Internet and traditional reference works as tools for research. Even fiction writers have an obligation to get their facts straight. Anachronisms--representations of someone as existing or something as happening in the wrong historical setting or chronological order--have doomed many a novel.

The late Patrick O'Brian, British cult author of a series of 17 maritime novels set in the Napoleonic era made himself an expert in all aspects of life in that period. These embrace music, poetry, food and science--including astronomy and medicine--not to mention the arcana of shipboard life, sailing and navigation. Similarly, American author E.L. Doctorow does extensive reading in American historical sources before starting to write. His impeccably researched works--Ragtime is perhaps the most famous--recreate their period settings with remarkable truth and vitality. In their artful melding of flawless scholarship with writing of high quality, the books of O'Brian and Doctorow have crossed the line between fiction and history to start an entirely new genre.

What's the best place to do research?
With vast amounts of reference material on databases and CD-ROM disks, home computers and printers make the laborious task of note taking unnecessary. Larger public libraries and regional libraries offer access to research tools such as complete files of back-number newspapers and magazines or subscription databases that may be beyond the reach or the pocketbooks of smaller libraries or individuals. Visit your local public library and ascertain the websites that the library offers access to, and take advantage of the laborsaving possibilities of these new research tools. For older reference works, you may still have to rely on books, note taking and the copying machine.

Don't disdain traditional sources of information. There's still a wealth of useful information locked up in books and off-trail periodicals. Introduce yourself to your local reference librarian; a phone call to a knowledgeable librarian can often save a trip to the library or endless hours of searching for elusive information on the Internet. The reference librarian can arrange to borrow scarce materials for you through the medium of interlibrary loan.

The Internet is a vast storehouse of data. Care must be exercised, however, in tapping into it. Because items can be posted easily, no guarantees can be made about the accuracy of the information. Also, users must exercise caution not to violate copyright; some unscrupulous individuals have posted copyrighted information on the Internet without the permission of the copyright owners.

Should I buy books?
An unabridged desk dictionary is not a purchase--it's an investment. As the cornerstone of your writer's library, it will serve you well for meanings, spellings, word-breaks and word origins. Another equally valuable tool is a thesaurus. Both are available as traditional books or electronically. But don't refer to a thesaurus until you have racked your brain for the right word or phrase; too-frequent use of a thesaurus as a crutch may make you too dependent on it. An encyclopedia can be a useful adjunct to any writer's library. Sets of the "big three"--Britannica, Americana or Collier's--can often be found at bargain prices at second-hand bookstores. I frequently use my 24-volume set of the 14th edition of the Britannica bought at a garage sale for twenty dollars.

How can I learn the basic rules of writing?
Your next purchase should be a style manual. These are of two types: those that review the rules of grammar, and those that set guidelines for the stylization of manuscripts for publication, as well as clarifying grammar, spelling and punctuation. Among the former, Strunk and White's The Elements of Style is a modern classic, despite its compact size. Among the latter, The Chicago Manual of Style, published by the University of Chicago Press, is the style manual used by many publishers and editors. Words Into Type is an especially readable favorite as is The New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage.

How can I ncrease my vocabulary?
Words are the fundamental building blocks of writers. You should constantly be on the lookout for new words and meanings to add to your vocabulary. With very little effort, anyone can acquire a larger and more useful vocabulary. When you encounter a new word, jot it down in your notebook. Later, look it up in your dictionary.

More than a half-century ago, Johnson O'Connor, director of the Human Engineering Laboratory at the prestigious Stevens Institute of Technology, made a startling discovery: a large vocabulary and an extensive knowledge of word meanings was a characteristic of all successful men and women. Education was not the key; those who had left school before their sixteenth year and worked their way up to executive positions turned out to have one thing in common: they had acquired larger vocabularies through self-instruction than many executives who were college graduates. O'Connor's English Vocabulary Builder often turns up in second-hand bookstores. If you spot a copy, snap it up.

When, where and what should I write with?
These three topics have been covered in depth in an earlier article entitled "The Work Habits of Highly Successful Writers" available here.

Should I discuss my writing ideas with others?
Don't make the common mistake of inexperienced writers by trying out your ideas or writing plans on friends or relatives before setting them down on paper. If you discuss what you intend to write too often before writing it, the important qualities of freshness and originality will soon vanish. Then when you finally get around to writing it, your original idea will seem stale and will have lost its appeal. In fact, your original excitement with the idea will have faded, and you'll be unhappy with it. So keep your ideas and imagination bottled up inside you until the moment of literary creation.

Do I need to make an outline?
Just as you wouldn't embark on a long automobile trip without a road map nor build a house without an architect's plan, don't start any nonfiction-writing project longer than a page without first making an outline. A detailed outline is the blueprint from which your actual writing should be executed. Most beginning writers pay too little attention to outlines. When they attempt one, it is usually too skimpy to reflect the structure of the intended work, with a loose and meandering piece of writing as the inevitable result. To be effective, an outline almost cannot be too detailed.

An outline is akin to a movie director's shooting script, leaving nothing to chance. An outline can also be compared to a sculptor's armature of pipe and wire on which the raw clay is draped. The outline, like the sculptor's armature, is always there under the finished work, lending strength and support to it but never being overtly apparent under the clay or behind the words. The addition of a little more clay here and the taking away of some clay there by the sculptor can be compared to the writer's revision process.

Fiction writers, on the other hand, are of two schools on the subject of outlines. One group insists that an outline is the outstanding fiction. The other is just as vehement in its insistence that fiction should evolve from the writer’s mind and imagination. They claim that a good story will literally tell itself. Stephen King, for example, told an interviewer that he begins with certain ideas and a sense of direction--but no plot outline. "I'm never sure where the story's going or what's going to happen with it. It's a discovery."

How much should I write?
The length of your writing session is up to you. Writing as little as a page a day will yield a good-sized book manuscript in a year. In his book, How To Write, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes suggests a clever way to induce words to flow: "If writing a book is impossible, write a chapter. If writing a chapter is impossible, write a page. If writing a page is impossible, write a paragraph. If writing a paragraph is impossible, write a sentence. If writing even a sentence is impossible, write a word."

According to Contemporary Authors, Stephen King likes to work on two things simultaneously, beginning his day early with a two- or -three miles walk.... He devotes his afternoon hours to rewriting.... While he is not particular about writing conditions, he is about output. Despite chronic headaches, occasional insomnia, and even a fear of writer's block, he produces six pages daily.’ And that's like engraved in stone,' he says."

Is there a key element in good writing?
Yes, revision, revision, revision. Real estate agents maintain that three elements make a house salable: location, location and location. Similarly, repeated revision is the key to a successful manuscript. As a teacher of writing and literary agent, I can say without exaggeration that I have never seen a manuscript (including my own) that could not profit from one more revision.

How can I discipline myself?
Organized work habits are the hallmark of every successful writer. Set a rigorous writing schedule for yourself, and stick to it. That second cup of coffee and the morning newspaper may be enticing--but are taboo. If you cannot discipline yourself, forget about writing. No successful writer ever said writing came easy. "Easy writing makes hard reading," was how Hemingway put it. If you are not exhausted at the end of each writing stint, you are not giving writing your all.

Procrastination is an enemy every writer has to face. Some writers will make it a point to tidy up the writing area before starting to write. Others practice meditation before each writing session. Don't worry about the bugaboo called "writer's block." Writers who write for a living will tell you that this problem simply doesn't exist except as a mysterious malady afflicting beginning writers and conjured up regularly by the editors of the so-called "writer's magazines."

Is there one quality that makes for writing success?
Yes, there is: Perseverance with a capital P. Perseverance is the trait shared by all successful writers. Twenty-two publishers turned down Dubliners, James Joyce's collection of realistic sketches, over a period of nine years. One of its stories, "The Dead," is today regarded as among the greatest short stories of all time. Lust for Life, by Irving Stone, the first book by the "inventor" of the biographical novel, had a difficult birth. Twenty-six publishers refused Stone’s manuscript, based on the life of Vincent Van Gogh, before it finally saw the light of day.

American author J.P. Donleavy's stream-of-consciousness novel The Ginger Man was rejected thirty-five times before being accepted by Maurice Girodias's Paris-based Olympia Press. Because Donleavy's bawdy novel was included in the publisher's series of pornographic paperbacks, the writer sued Girodias. After many years of unsuccessful litigation, Donleavy bought the defunct Olympia Press at a bankruptcy auction. In an ironic twist, he then had to call off his lawsuit: he was suing himself.

Forty-nine different editors refused Cool Hand Luke, a first novel by Donn Pearce, a 36-year-old merchant seaman who had spent two years on a chain gang. But the fiftieth publisher's first reader saw the story of an indomitable prisoner on a Florida chain gang as a book well worth publishing. Hollywood snapped up the film rights, and Pearce shared an Academy award for the screenplay.

The Stephen King Story
The prize for perseverance surely goes to Stephen King, hands down. Encouraged by his working wife, he abandoned menial labor and a low-paying teaching job in Maine, and elected to stay home and write. Upon completing his first book manuscript titled Getting It On, he cast around for a publisher. Impressed with The Parallax View, a 1970 novel by Mamaroneck, N.Y., author Loren Singer, King sent a manuscript to Doubleday, the book's publisher, addressed, "To the Editor of "The Parallax View." That editor happened to be on vacation, so the manuscript was given to William G. Thompson, another Doubleday editor. Although Thompson saw the power in King's writing, he couldn't get editorial support from fellow Doubleday editors, and the King manuscript was eventually rejected. Thompson encouraged King to keep trying.

Three subsequent King submissions met a similar fate and also were declined. Undeterred, King sent Thompson the manuscript of still another novel, his fifth. King had written what he later described as a "parable of women's consciousness," and then threw it away. His wife retrieved it from the trash and urged him to expand it into a novel. Titled Carrie, it was an exciting tale of a young girl with supernatural powers. Thompson liked it and convinced other Doubleday editors that the book could be a winner. The publisher offered King an advance against royalties of $2,500. King accepted and, as the saying has it, the rest is history.

As publishers regularly do with most hardcover books, Doubleday shopped proofs of Carrie around to paperback publishers. Interest was lively and paperback rights to King's first novel went to New American Library for a cool $400,000. Doubleday's contract with King called for income on subsidiary rights to be split 50-50 between publisher and author, making King rich beyond his wildest dreams. In part because of the sale of its paperback rights, Doubleday ordered an initial press run for Carrie of 30,000 copies, a huge number for a first novel. Contemporary Authors noted, "the novel was marketed as horror fiction, and the genre had found its juggernaut."

After the runaway success of Carrie, King followed with two more books, Salem's Lot and The Shining, the latter title King's first hardcover novel to land on the New York Times bestseller list. In 1977, King argued convincingly that the time was ripe for a reconsideration of the first four rejected King manuscripts, but Doubleday had strong reservations about overexposure of its now best-selling author. Accordingly, King persuaded New American Library to publish the four previously rejected manuscripts in hardcover under the pen name of Richard Bachman, a thin disguise that many of King's fans easily saw through.

Getting It On became the first of the so-called "Bachman books." Retitled Rage, it told the story of a gun-loving high school student who takes over his classroom and kills his teacher and carried a dedication to Thompson. The other Bachman titles, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man and Thinner were published at intervals of a year or two beginning in 1979. All were modest successes. However, shortly after the publication of Thinner in 1985, it was publicly acknowledged that King was Bachman, and the book shot to No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. A mere four weeks after Thinner fell from the No. 1 spot, the next Stephen King book, Skeleton Crew, reached No. 1--the only book of short stories ever to do so.

When King's ultralong manuscript of more than 1,600 pages titled The Stand reached Doubleday, the publisher had already parted company with editor Thompson, and King acquired a new editor. The publisher told King that he must cut the size of the book by 150 pages in order to keep the cover price down. This infuriated King, but he did what he was told to do. Doubleday's edition of 24,000 copies sold well but never topped the bestseller lists. In 1990, twelve years later, the book about an America in which most of its people have been killed by plague and in which the forces of good and evil compete for the remnant population, was issued as King originally wrote it with the excised pages restored. Retitled The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition, and despite the previous edition, the book entered the New York Times bestseller list at No. 1 and remained there for four weeks. In all, it was on the Times list for 37 weeks, attesting to the pulling power of King's name.

Because Doubleday, one of the few publishing companies to own a printing plant, published King's books as part of press runs for its lower-quality book clubs editions, King soon became unhappy with the quality of the Doubleday-printed books and Doubleday’s chintzy advances. Matters came to a head when King issued an ultimatum: He would sell Doubleday rights to his three next already-written novels for $3.5 million. Thompson, King's editor, urged Doubleday to meet this price, but the company refused and shortsightedly made a final counteroffer of $3.0 million, $500,000 short of King's figure. King took his books elsewhere. New American Library had no such qualms and easily met King's asking price, then sold the hardcover rights to a delighted Viking Press in what publishers call a "backward deal."

King's fifth novel and his first book for Viking, The Dead Zone, published in 1979 is, in King's eyes, his finest work. It became the first King book to make the New York Times bestseller list. The story of a man who comes out of a coma with the ability to foresee the future. Not liking what he sees, he sets out to change it. In 1980, the second of King's book to make that list, Firestarter, is about an eight-year-old girl who can set things afire just by looking at them. It spent 35 weeks on the list. Less than a year later, King again attained No. 1 with Cujo, a story about rabid dog disturbing the peace of a rural Maine town.

Despite bouts of addiction to alcohol and hard drugs in the 1980s and being struck by a vehicle in a near-fatal accident in 1999 while walking along a rural highway, a recovered Stephen King remains a veritable book factory. No other author has come close to the number of Stephen King’s books that have appeared on the New York Times bestseller lists, To this day, he still negotiates multimillion-dollar advances for his books. Demonstrating that dogged perseverance can indeed pay off for a writer, since 1977 there has not been a year without the appearance of one or more books bearing Stephen King's name as author. That's perseverance with a capital P.

Labels: The Writing Clinic, Writers and Writing

THE WRITING CLINIC

Aspiring writers often are curious about the work habits of other writers. Here are some questions would-be writers frequently ask:

Where should I write?
The most important requirement is a quiet place, free of distractions. If your home is too noisy, try writing in the public library.

Early in his writing career, John Cheever, writer of short stories set in suburbia, only owned one suit. Each morning, he would put it on and take the elevator to a windowless basement storage room in his New York apartment house not far from the Queensboro Bridge.

"I hung my suit on a hanger," he told an interviewer for Newsweek Magazine, "and would write until nightfall. Then I dressed and returned to our apartment. I wrote many of my stories in boxer shorts."

Virginia Woolf and her husband founded the Hogarth Press in 1917 to publish her books and those of other British authors. They leased a house in London and converted the musty basement into an office. Her writing space was the former billiards room, which she shared with old files and stacks of books. In the adjoining lavatory, old galley proofs served as toilet paper.

Truman Capote felt that he did his best work in motel rooms. When Broadway showman George M. Cohan needed a script, he bought a train ticket and spent the entire trip writing in a Pullman drawing room. He could dash off 140 pages between New York and Chicago.

Many writers preferred to write near water--but not necessarily beside a burbling brook. Ben Franklin, who owned the first bathtub in America, liked to write while immersed in it. Because of a busy social life, French playwright Edmond Rostand, best known for his comical portrait of Cyrano de Bergerac, also wrote in his bathtub. Soaking in a tub was conducive to creativity for Vladimir Nabokov, author of the controversial novel Lolita.

Some writers resorted to extreme measures to avoid the inevitable interruptions that disturb creative flow. Raymond Carver, dubbed "the American Chekhov" because of his short story characters' inability to communicate with one another, would sometimes take refuge in his automobile to write.

Josh Greenfeld, co-author of the screenplay for the cult film Harry and Tonto, was forced by a growing family to seek a quiet place in which to write. Unable to find commercial office space, he rented an empty storefront in his hometown of Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., and installed a desk and typewriter.

Not all writers favored a sitting position. Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson wrote while recumbent. Truman Capote described himself as "a completely horizontal writer." By contrast, Lewis Carroll and Thomas Wolfe wrote standing up. So did Ernest Hemingway after injuring his back in a plane crash.

Asked by a journalist during an interview, "Where's the best place to write?" satirical writer Dorothy Parker quipped, "In your head."

When should I write?
Creativity cannot be turned on like a faucet. You must discover when your biorhythms--your innate cyclical biological processes--are best suited to writing.

Russian novelist Count Leo Tolstoy and French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau were both morning writers. On the other hand, Feodor Dostoyevsky wrote at night. So did asthmatic Marcel Proust, whose attacks were less severe then. American novelist and short-story writer John O'Hara liked to write between midnight and 7 a.m., and to sleep by day.

Honoré de Balzac, called the father of realist fiction for his vivid portrayal of 19th-century French society, also preferred to work while others slept. Keeping himself awake with endless cups of thick, black coffee, he died at 50 from what may have been caffeine poisoning.

After her bitter divorce from poet Ted Hughes, tragic American poet Sylvia Plath lived in a tiny London apartment. Low on funds, she rose at 4 a.m. and worked on The Bell Jar until her two infant children were awake. Mentally and physically ill, she committed suicide a month after this masterwork was published.

Writers with full-time jobs often have difficulty finding time to write. One solution is simply to get up earlier. While working as a direct mail copywriter, Denison Hatch completed three successful novels by rising at five each morning and writing 500 words before leaving for his regular job. Written this way, his first novel, Cedarhurst Alley, is still in print.

Early riser Dava Sobel was asked whether the success of her surprise bestseller Longitude had changed her work habits. She told interviewer Brian Lamb, "I still get up at four and go to work in my jammies."

What should I write with?
The tools of the writer range from the lowly pen or pencil to the computer. The latter has not entirely displaced the typewriter. Writers who have not joined the computer revolution and still write with a typewrier include Stephen Ambrose and Robert Leckie, who bemoans, "They don't make Royals anymore." Historian David McCullough still writes on a manual typewriter "because I like the feeling of making something with my hands. I like paper. I like to see the key come up and hit that paper."

Robert Caro, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of master builder Robert Moses and President Lyndon B. Johnson, wrote his exhaustively researched volumes in longhand before transcribing the first of many drafts on a typewriter. Only comparatively recently did he switch to a computer.

The lack of a typewriter or computer should not prevent anyone from writing. Ernest Hemingway frequently wrote in pencil, beginning his writing stints with the ritual sharpening of dozens of pencils. When John Steinbeck complained that hexagonal pencils cut into his fingers after a long day, his editor at Viking Press supplied him with round pencils.

Thomas Wolfe wrote on sheets of yellow paper with pencil stubs he kept in a coffee can. Although he could not abide yellow roses in a room, Truman Capote was another who preferred yellow paper. His favorite writing tool was the Blackwing No. 602, an intensely black lead pencil made by Faber Castell.

Vladimir Nabokov used 5- by 8-inch index cards in his research as a world-famous expert on butterflies. He also wrote his novels on cards, then sorted and arranged them before transferring the final version to paper.

Reclusive poet Emily Dickinson lived most of her life in the house in which she was born. "I never had to go anywhere to find my paradise," she said in defense of her lifestyle. Devoting herself to domestic duties and care of her parents in their declining years, few of her sensitive poems were published during her lifetime.

Virtually unknown to the public, after she died the vast body of her work was found scrawled on the backs of envelopes or grocery bills and on odd scraps of paper. A complete volume of her verse did not appear until 1955, nearly seventy years after her death.

Trail-breaking Imagist poet Amy Lowell was another longhand writer. She dressed mannishly in severely tailored suits and men's shirts. When writing, she smoked small Philippine cigars, which she claimed were less distracting than cigarettes because they lasted longer. In 1915, fearing a shortage might be caused by the first World War, she ordered ten thousand of her favorite brand to be shipped to her from Manila.

Even today, many successful writers persist in using pen or pencil and paper. Horror writer Stephen King, curmudgeonly Norman Mailer, cynical crime novelist Elmore Leonard and TV playwright Horton Foote are among contemporary authors who write in longhand. Civil War historian and novelist Shelby Foote (no relation) insisted on writing with an old-fashioned dip pen and ink bottle. "This causes all kinds of problems," he admitted, "everything from finding blotters to pen points."

Other writers who favor pens include Martin Gilbert (Israel--A History) and Joseph J. Ellis (American Sphinx: A Biography of Thomas Jefferson). Bell Hooks, prolific African-American writer on feminist subjects, says, "I handwrite everything, and then I put it on a computer.: Up until her 1992 biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, Blanche Wiesen Cook wrote everything with a fountain pen. Since then she has used a computer.

Award-winning journalist Robert Scott admits that he writes the first drafts of his feature articles longhand on yellow legal-size pads. "The pencil is an unobtrusive tool, and words flow easily onto the paper. Instead of worrying about hitting the proper keys, I can concentrate on the sense of what I am writing."

Because he never learned to type, British author John le Carré (real name, Ronald Cornwell) wrote all his spy thrillers by hand. Many terms that are now part of the vocabulary of intelligence agencies were first used by him in his novels.

How Much Should I Write?
How long your writing sessions last is up to you. Writing as little as a page a day will yield a good-sized book manuscript in a year.

Getting started is often a problem. Before starting to write, "so that I may have in the back of my mind the touchstone of that lucidity, grace and wit," Somerset Maugham would read Voltaire's Candide. Willa Cather, novelist of American frontier life, always read a passage from the Bible. Southern Gothic author Carson McCullers could only write when wearing her "lucky sweater."

When Walter "Red" Smith, then the most widely syndicated columnist in America, was asked how he managed to generate good writing so consistently, "I sit at my typewriter, open a vein and bleed," was his answer.

In How To Write: Advice and Reflections, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes suggested a clever way to induce words to flow. If writing a book, a chapter, a page or even a sentence is impossible, his advice is, "write a word."

In his On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, super-prolific author Stephen King admitted, "I like to get ten pages a day, which amounts to 2,000 words." Philip Roth claims it can take as long as six months to produce what he considers an acceptable page of his witty and ironic fiction.

For successful writers the writing life is far from easy. Many follow schedules so rigorous they would violate labor laws. Mary Higgins Clark begins work at 5 a.m. (a holdover from the days when her children were small) and may continue until midnight. Crime writer Patricia Cornwell, another human dynamo, will write for 14 hours daily on a new book, stopping only long enough to eat cottage cheese from the container.

Romantic novelist Danielle Steel puts in 18-hour days and still uses a 1946 Olympia manual typewriter. At least one of her titles was on The New York Times bestseller list for a record-setting 390 weeks. Polymath Isaac Asimov revealed that he created his nonfiction books in 70 hours. He rose at 6 a.m. and wrote until 10 at night. This grueling schedule yielded almost 500 books before his death. Louis L'Amour churned out three Western novels a year for more than 30 years.

Reclusive J.D. Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye, avoids intrusive visitors by writing in the ultimate writer's retreat--a concrete bunker near his New Hampshire home. He gets up at dawn and spends as much as 16 hours at his typewriter.

Chronic procrastination is an enemy many writers face. Novelist and screenwriter Budd Shulberg humorously described the syndrome: "First, I clean my typewriter. Then I go through my shelves and return all borrowed books. Then I play with my three children. Then, if it's warm, I go for a swim. Then I find some friends to have a drink with. By then, it's time to clean the typewriter again."

"I only write when I am inspired," wry novelist Peter de Vries once explained. "And I see to it that I am inspired at 9 o'clock every morning."

Single-minded dedication and organized work habits are the hallmark of every successful writer. Set a realistic writing schedule for yourself, and stick to it. That second cup of coffee and the morning newspaper may be enticing--but are absolutely taboo. If you cannot discipline yourself, forget about being a writer.

Labels: The Writing Clinic, Writers and Writing, Writers' Work Habits