Re: Visual & Verbal are not as disparate as language suggests


"Rik" <rik@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:sf%Xi.231249$lV4.228910@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Patricia C. Wrede wrote:
"Rik" <rik@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

What's a trunk novel?

A manuscript that a writer wrote, shopped around, failed to sell, and
stuck in a trunk in the attic. At least, that's the traditional
definition. Nowadays, trunk novels are more likely to be occupying an
unused corner of the hard drive, but never mind that...

Ah. I've reached the stage of writing my first novel where I'm beginning
to believe in it so much that the thought of nobody wanting to buy it just
doesn't compute. A complete transformation for me because when I started
writing it it was intended to be a learning experience and thus
predestined to become a trunk novel.

Confidence is good. Overconfidence can get in the way, but I don't think
you have that problem.

You may not be able to see it, but I'd still check with the publisher
when the time comes. For two reasons: some of them are still
Internet-paranoid, and will get upset about it; and some of them are
delighted and will throw money or (more likely) free assistence in your
direction. And even if neither of those things happens, even if the
publisher just shrugs and says, "Whatever," you'll have established that
you are a courteous and thoughtful author, which is never a waste.

Any (dreamed of) publication date is likely to be more than 3 years away -
I'll have to hope that technophobe publishers will be extinct by then.

I doubt they will be, and you can't guarantee that one of 'em won't be the
one to buy your ms. But it's not really that much of a problem, as long as
you're willing to adjust.

I forgot to mention -- there are also publishers who actively discourage
writers from getting involved in publicizing their books. Generally, this
is because the publishers have had exceedingly bad experiences with writers
seriously screwing up their publicity efforts in the past. Coordinating
efforts can be more necessary than you think.

And there's always the argument that you're better off spending time writing
your next book than doing publicity of dubious value on your previous book.
I think this argument is still true, though with all the various avenues
available through the Internet, it's not as strongly true as it used to be.
Especially if you're already doing stuff to promote your poetry on-line;
then the book publicity stuff becomes less of a brand-new time sink that
takes away from your writing, and more of an extension of time you're
already spending on something else.

<snip>

Getting people to stay on a website (after finding it in the first place -
an artform in itself) is difficult. Images, layout, navigation,
typography - they're all as important as the text content itself. Writing
the book (I believe) is no longer just about sitting in front of a
typewriter with a ready supply of paper and a handy waste bin.

I'm not sure there's a strong connection between the first part of that
paragraph and the second, or at least, not as strong as you may think there
is. If we're talking traditional print publication here, rather than
e-publication, you've still got a situation where the vast majority of
publishers don't want more than a teaser chapter or two on-line, and there's
not a lot of evidence (that I've seen, anyway) about how much that affects
overall book sales. That there is *some* effect is clear, but the only
publisher I know who's actively trying to push the limits and experiment
with this stuff is Baen, and to the best of my knowledge, they haven't
suddenly leapt forward in terms of sales or profits compared to the other SF
publishing houses. That they're doing well argues that paying attention to
online stuff is a workable model, but it's not clear yet whether it's
superior to previous business models or merely equivalent.

For myself, I'm still doing pretty well just writing the book (though I
freely confess to great joy at having been able to dump the paper and
wastebasket in favor of a word processor...but that happened over 20 years
ago).

Patricia C. Wrede


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