Be Careful What You Pray For

It seems only yesterday that I was lecturing to you (acutally it was two days ago) about how to start small to get things done and make a difference.  Here is how I put it--

Overnight success usually takes a long time.  And the job is so daunting.  So break it down into a "series of small things."  You can find a million reasons not to do something.  Find a reason to do something.  And, as Vince says, start small.

I should have been a preacher, or a consultant.  Because doing and telling are two different things and telling is a lot easier than doing.  But my mother's voice from history came floating through my psyche and it boiled down to basically her sanitized version of "Put up or shut up."

Because I read my book contract.  I've read enough contracts to know a couple of things.  One party always has the upper hand.  As one company lawyer told me about one deal, "If there is anything in there in our favor, their lawyer screwed up."  And that is usually the way it is.

Two, that most writing in contracts is unnecessary and boiler plate and the real facts are scattered throughout the document.  And I went looking for the facts.  First, I found the sliding scale of royalties to me.  10% of the price goes to me for the first 7,500 books, then 12.5% for the next 7,500 sales and 15% on anything over that.  Good or bad?  I don't know.  And I don't care because I don't have another publisher waiting in the wings to drive up the commission.  So ignore that.

Then length.  We had had some discussion on this and I threw out 250 pages.  They asked for a word count so I went to three books on the libary shelve.  Counted the words on five pages, totalled them, divided by five to get a page average.  Did this for the three books and got an average of about 400 words per page.  400 words per page times 250 pages equals 100,000 words.  This was in the contract.  OK.

Finally the deadline.  And my blood ran cold.  Yours would too because any deadline will do that.  People hate deadlines.  But this one really got my attention.  We had briefly discussed the subject and I threw out 90 days.  Had to have something.  They agreed.  So I figured the contract would say something like 'manuscript due 90 days from the date of signing of contract.'  That was what I would do and most contracts I have read do this kind of thing.

Not these folks.  Right there--due July 3, 2006.  My execution date.  So did some quick figuring.  April 20th to July 3rd is 74 days, I think.  Leave a month for editing.  So 44 days.  I already have written about 20,000 words in the sample chapters so 80,000 remaining and round 44 days down to 40 and 80,000 divided by 40 is 2,000 words per day.

Piece of cake.  But wait a minute, that's 2,000 words a day, seven days a week.  No rest for the weary.

Went to my wife for advice.  But she is in the middle of a big fundraiser and I am on the sidelines.  She is always in the middle of something.  If we ever got divorced and the timing coincided with a big event the dialogue would go something like this.  Me first then her.

I don't know how to tell you this but J Lo called and can't live without me.

OK.

I've decided that to save her career I must go to her.

OK.

So I am leaving tomorrow after 30 years of marriage to you.

OK.

This breaks my heart but I have to follow my heart.

OK.

You get the picture.  Her advice on the book was basically, Quit Whining.

So I did.  And yesterday I wrote 2,000 words.  This is going to be rough.  Maybe I'll go back to telling people what to do.

Comments

[Bloomingyou]

You can do it! The reward of seeing your name in print is more than worth it!

[SaraJane]

Good luck! You can do it! Congratulations on the contract! That's huge and so cool!

[Jay P.]

Bill

Didn't you ever get that voice activated typing program to work? Why are you typing you should be dictating and having someone else type. Outsourcing! Heck outsource a chapter or two to guest authors.

Don't say I never help you out!!

[cahoots]

I think its better if you have a deadline..but this one is harsh..still i am sure you will make it. Someone is publishing your first book!! Write away....to glory :)
And to defend your wife, your point about you being on the sideline...Sir i am sure there will be a case when in a coversation you go "ok", "ok", "ok"....thats how marriage works ;)

[Henk]

National Novel Writing Month ???
What the heck ? Why don't I know about that ?

Well, I do now :)

Thanks Mountain Girl !

Uncle Bill, since you're still blogging, you obviously have too much time. I think you should spend that time writing proposals for your next book and sending them to publishers :)
Good luck with the writing

[Chris Yeh]

Holy crap, Bill, you should have asked me about the contract first. That's an incredibly tight deadline. Of course you can do it.

[Mountain Girl]

You can do it! A few years ago, I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and finished a novel in 30 days. It wasn't a best-seller, but I got my word count ;)

If you need a cheerleader, I'll be here!