Interview over at Bo’s Cafe Life

July 30, 2011

So “Bo” has turned me into a cartoon for this two-part interview on his website Bo’s Cafe Life. Go on over and see how I look as a coffee mug. What do you think? Does the styrofoam make my butt look too big?

4 Comments | Bo's Cafe Life, interview | Permalink
Posted by lynnpricewrites

#GratefulFriday – making lemonade

July 29, 2011

There are many things I’m grateful for, so I’ve decided to turn every Friday post into honoring those experiences or people who have touched my life. With all the negative things in the world, I thought this a nice reprieve.

This week’s #GratefulFriday is a bit backhanded because my gratitude comes in the form of not having someone in my life – a certain publisher that’s been widely talked about as being an author mill.

My tenure with them began many years ago, which I discussed here.  Because of that blog post, they sic’d their lawyer on me, threatening me with “further action” if I didn’t remove what they felt were lies. When I ignored them, their lawyer contacted me again with the same threats. So I went into the blog post and made some changes because I discovered that my claim of successfully suing them and winning was inaccurate – and this is thanks to my attorney, who led me to believe otherwise.

He is no longer my attorney.

This change in my blog post thrilled them beyond belief, and they couldn’t contain their glee. So much so, that they felt compelled to email me this love letter:

Thank you for removing the false statements that you, bafflingly, had completely fabricated out of thin air, and posted on the internet. We do not know why you would fabricate false statements, but it is easy to see why you keep hidden from your associates the fact that you:

- made up completely false, fabricated, lies
– posted the lies on the internet
– were caught posting these lies
– were issued a demand to remove the lies
– you immediately complied and removed the lies

Please do not fabricate lies about us again. Inquiries made on this issue will result in our describing your being caught in dishonesty, the nature of your obviously false statements, and the fact that you did exactly what we instructed you to do: removed your lies from the internet.

Thank you,

The company whose initials are P and A (my edit – I’m checking to see if they actually follow my blog or take action when they see their name pop up in Google Alert)

They tried to force me to remove the part where I talked about fearing for my safety, but come on – how would they know how I felt about having my husband’s name and hometown exposed on their author site (which anyone can read) by someone who admitted to being one of their employees?

So in spite of my initial agony from this company, the ultimate ending has been very sweet. Every time we sign a fabulous new author, or watch sales numbers climb, I bless my experience with them because without their abuse, none of this would have happened.

I could have easily allowed myself to become bitter over this experience, but where’s the fun in being the only one suffering? My best revenge was to become better than what I’d gotten.

So today is about making lemonade out of lemons. How about you? What lemons did Life send you and you made the conscious decision to make lemonade?

15 Comments | #gratefulfriday | Permalink
Posted by lynnpricewrites

Embellishment – sphincter pucker for publishers

July 28, 2011

With the continued revelations of writers suffering from James Frey Disease, nonfiction publishers perform their daily ritual of puckering their sphincters – especially when they read an article that questions yet another author’s faulty memory. I’m being nice. Nicer than I’d feel if one of those authors were mine. Actually this sort of thing makes me want to sew voodoo dolls and raid the local JoAnn’s Fabric of all their straight pins.

This latest kerfluffle involves Luis Carlos Montalvan and his book, Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him. This is the type of book that invades my dreams and wishie lists of a dream book, and it’s agonizing to find out that his story is being questioned by those who served with him.

This is the main fear I have when I review query letters. James Frey (and yes, it still bugs me that he’s been given so much credibility) and Greg Mortenson of Three Cups of Tea fame have ruined my sense of trust. Instead of accepting experiences at face value, I’m forced to measure my ability to vet any given story. That inability could prevent me from accepting a book of real worth.

On the other hand, maybe it’s good those who dance around the truth have been exposed. If lying is the new paradigm, perhaps it’s best my rose-colored glasses were ripped from my face. After all, if it’s good enough for our politicians, it must be good enough for us. This is a trickle-down idea I can live without. I mourn the loss of honesty and a moral compass.

And I find it particularly shocking when much is made of someone’s honesty – like the guy who returns a wallet, still filled with $20,000…like honesty is as novel an idea as mixing Twinkies and bananas.

Lying is expensive – not necessarily to the one perpetuating the lie (hello James Frey) – but to the publisher, who is left holding the bag. People scoff and believe that a publisher can shoulder this kind of financial hit if they decide to remove the book or offer refunds. But I can promise you that when this stuff happens, people lose their jobs. So while Frey and Mortenson go about their days without a care, someone is taking the hit for their folly.

Lying is intentional. Someone is actively trying to pull one over on you, and hoping you’re dumb enough or trusting enough to pull it off. I wish society condemned lying, but it seems that these are passed off as “transgressions” or “remembering wrong.” Remembering wrong? Have we become so blasé about the truth that we’re willing to forgive and forget? If so, stop the world and let me get off.

If there was no profit or advantage in lying, it would cease to exist. As a publisher, I’ve had my eyes ripped open and I’m more careful about vetting than I ever have been. There have been any number of queries I’ve received where it was painfully obvious the author had no filter for lying, and I could reject them as easily as I can down one of the beagle’s margaritas. But it stinks to reject someone because I know there are big claims they’re making that I can’t ferret out without hiring a detective or researcher.

So to the three people I rejected the other day, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I didn’t have the guts to admit that I was rejecting you because I couldn’t believe you without rock-solid proof. No one appreciates having their integrity questioned, and I’m sorry you were the blowback of the Freys, Mortensons, and Montalvans of the world. I hate that I’ve had to become cynical and suspicious in order to protect all that we’ve worked to build. And my heart goes out to the publishers whose authors have cheated them.

Until society takes the profit out of lying, I’ll continue to keep my sphincter muscles in good working order.

How do you feel about those authors who have been caught lying?

14 Comments | liar liar | Permalink
Posted by lynnpricewrites

Fiction is still stranger than truth

July 27, 2011

An acquaintance mentioned reading the e-version of my book, Donovan’s Paradigm, and asked if my parents really had a beach house in Newport Beach, did I have a dog named Swamp Thing, and is my protagonist, Erik Behler, patterned after my husband. The answers, in order, are:  Only in my dreams, yes, not a chance.

Over the years people have asked me to clarify which parts of my novel are “true.” Geez, tough answer because I really don’t know. I often stick to the axiom of “write what you know,” but my knowledge of medicine and surgery would fill a thimble. That took arduous hours of research and talking to the horse’s mouth, as it were.

What I do “know” is human nature, relationships, heartache, sorrow, regret, slap-happy joy, and perseverance, so I felt adequately qualified to hit those notes in perfect pitch.

A friend told me how flattered she was to be the character of Erik’s best friend, and I nearly swallowed my tongue because it couldn’t have been further from the truth. They were nothing alike, and I have no clue where she got that idea.

It made me wonder if friends and family see a few things they know are a part of the author’s life (like my dearly departed Swamp Thing) and expect that everything else is biographical in nature as well, and look for any similarities, no matter how small and inconsequential.

Occupational hazard, I imagine. I mean, family and friends don’t really have a clue where the author ends and the story begins, so they take ownership of situations and characters. Since they aren’t writers, they don’t necessarily appreciate or understand the high value we writers place on our imaginations. On the other hand, I have to allow that I may subconsciously include things that have me written all over it…like the fact that I can ramble when I’m upset and that I have a thing for men’s hands.

So whenever I’m confronted with the, “That character is so me!” I just pull out my stock answer – “Eh, fiction still is stranger than truth.” And when I get narked on personal traits, I blush and admit I’ve been busted.

How ’bout you? Do you find people trying to insinuate themselves into your stories? How do you deal with it?

9 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by lynnpricewrites

#SummerReadTuesday

July 26, 2011

"...(a) spirited first novel...entertaining...intriguing...Bollow shows promise." --Publisher's Weekly

With the lazy days of summer hitting us full force, it always comes to pass that you need a great collection of great books to entertain you while you hit the beach, travel in your motor home, or simply escape the kids and heat by locking yourself in your room.Well, hold on to your Vickie Secrets, ‘cos I have a doozie for you.

Author and playwright, Ludmilla Bollow, sent me her book when we were still wet behind the ears. Her book was our first Publisher’s Weekly review, so I have a very special place in my heart for this lovely book.

I fell in love with Dr. Zastro’s Sanitarium because it’s populated with so many wonderful, passionate, three-dimensional characters and passionate yet tragic plot that still impacts me seven years later.

This is no ordinary romance. Ludmilla’s literary palette is set in , where the mores of sexual-oppression bumps up against fiercely independent Yana, who comes to Dr. Zastro’s clinic to heal her arm, so she can resume her painting career. The idea of finding love is the furthest thing from her mind because she doesn’t want to feel tied to any man. But the ever-proper Dr. Phillipe Zastro intrigues her.

Unlike women of that time, Yana acts on her growing desire for Phillipe, and in the process, shatters his delicate balance of maintaining professional boundaries and feeling a new awakening of desire he never knew existed. Yana lights up his life and fills a gap in his life that he tried to fill by tossing himself into his work. Where he’d always seen life in the clinical, scientific world of black and white, suddenly the world has shades of gray.

And it’s those shades of gray that threaten his and Yana lives when a patient dies and Dr. Zastro is blamed for it. Prosecuted and sentenced to jail, Yana waits those long years for him. For the first time in her life, she’s taken the ultimate leap of faith and given herself unquestioningly to a man – something she swore she’d never do.

After Phillipe pays his unjust debt for a crime he didn’t commit, he finally returns to Yana and finds true joy in finally feeling complete. But Life isn’t done with Yana, and she is handed one last tragedy that will crush her heart and spirit, yet teach her grace and ease her restless gypsy soul.

I admit it – I cried like a baby, and if I had to rate this with Kleenex boxes, I’d give this a five – meaning that I recommend you have five Kleenex boxes on you when you read this lovely, tender book.

I could relate to Yana because she’s an independent cuss who doesn’t take crap from anyone, yet life and love soften her into a lovely state of grace amid ultimate sadness. I loved seeing Phillipe release the chains of what’s considered proper in order to allow his heart to have a bigger voice in his life. I loved that they both became better people for having loved each other. Bittersweet and tragic, to be sure, but dang…what a fabulous book.

Buy this book if you want a beautifully written story that captures the depths of how powerful love is. And have a lovely reading summer.

5 Comments | Dr. Zastro's Sanitarium, Ludmilla Bollow | Permalink
Posted by lynnpricewrites

Busy Busy…New Deals

July 25, 2011

The beagle accuses me of being a total slacker – which is wholly unfair. She’s the slacker. You know it, I know it, we all know it.

And just to prove we haven’t been slacking off, I’m showing off our two new sales, as shown in Publisher’s Marketplace:

Genre: nonfiction/narrative
Amanda Adams couldn’t foresee a son born with half a heart and twelve surgeries within his first seven years, HEART WARRIORS is Amanda’s journey to conquering grief and lost expectations while navigating a complex medical landscape and seeking a “new normal” in parenting a child with special medical needs, to Lynn Price at Behler Publications, for publication in April 2012.

———————————————-

Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir:
THE FOUR GIFTS: HOW ONE PRIEST RECEIVED A SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH CHANCE AT LIFE is Father Joseph Bradley’s gift of three “extra lives” when surviving the loss of a loved one, overcoming drug and alcohol addiction, a heart transplant, resulting in a complete shift in his approach to his life work, to Lynn Price at Behler Publications by Claire Gerus of Claire Gerus Literary Agency.

—————————————————

Genre: nonfiction/memoir
Named by Time Magazine as one of the Top 10 Female Sports Pioneers of all time, Ann Meyers Drysdale’s inspirational story of her legendary sports career, from being the only woman ever to try out for an NBA team to becoming the GM of the Phoenix Mercury and the only female Vice President of an NBA team, to be published in time for the 40th anniversary of Title IX, to Lynn Price at Behler by David Fugate of LaunchBooks Literary Agency. The title is, So You Let Some Girl Beat You?

————————————————-
And here’s some nice press for one of our authors, Kim Kircher, and her fabulous new book, The Next 15 Minutes.

Not bad for a few week’s worth of work, eh?

7 Comments | Amanda Adams, Claire Gerus, David Fugate | Permalink
Posted by lynnpricewrites

#GratefulFriday

July 22, 2011

I know Fridays bring about all sorts of invitations to something, or announcing general huzzahs in the internet world. For example, the Twitter literary world generates #fridayreads, where tweeters (twits?) can list the books they’re reading.

I’m always reading, but more often than not, it’s a manuscript I requested, so it doesn’t qualify for Twitter’s #fridayreads…unless I end up publishing it, in which case I would DEMAND everyone read it.

But before I can get to the point of making demands, I have to read. A lot. The thing I love most about my job is the time I’m granted to soak up the words that have poured forth from others’ fingertips. I’ve learned so much from writers, and it humbles me that they’re willing to share their hearts and souls with me. The one I’m currently reading makes me glad to be alive because it’s so achingly fabulous.

Truly, I have the best job in the world, and I have all you writers to thank for it.

So I’ve decided to anoint Friday as #gratefulfriday because I think it’s nice to take one day out of seven to stop and remember the things that make you happy to be alive.

How ’bout you? What are you grateful for?

9 Comments | #gratefulfriday | Permalink
Posted by lynnpricewrites

Ernie has it right

July 21, 2011

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
— Ernest Hemingway

There have been times when I sat down and the words flowed as easily as the beagle’s margaritas sliding down my throat. Other times, it’s been like my attempts at baking…soppy, wet, sludgy things that by any other name, by any other cook, would be a cake.

How ’bout it…do you bleed, or do your stories flow forth with ease? Me ‘n Ernie…we be mates.

14 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by lynnpricewrites

The view from my batcave

July 19, 2011

OK then…I’ve wrestled control of our blog back from the beagle. In reading her post, it seems no one wanted to win one of her beagle purses, so I can now resume talking all things publishy while the beagle sulks in the corner, nursing a margarita and snarling at me.

When I sat down this morning to write, I felt conflicted on what topics to address because there were so many ideas that were competing for top billing. So I decided to address all of them.

Hopey Hope

Everyone knows what it’s like to want something so badly that you’re willing to go against the advice of many and do it anyway. It’s like the time I gave my sister a perm. It was a hundred years ago (thank the Cosmic Muffin), so my sister can laugh about it now.

She was a busy single mom at the time and needed an easy peasy hairdo – something akin to wash ‘n wear hair. Don’t we all? I mean, who actually thinks it’s great sport to stand in front of a mirror with no less than five electric appliances that will dry, straighten, curl, de-frizz, and condition your hair in under five hours?

Money was tight for my enterprising, hardworking, brilliant sister, but Pricey had all the answers. “You don’t need to spend a fortune, I’ll give you a perm.” Sis wondered about my lack of experience and expertise. In fact, everyone in the room thought my sister had taken leave of her senses to let me lay hands upon her gorgeous hair. But ever the confident one, I whipped out a box of Magic Perm O’Lot and shoved on a confident grin. “Save your money. We can do this.”

And I did.

And she came out looking like something straight out of National Geographic. We renamed her Umbala Kerfluffle Africana. She renamed me SheWhoWillMeetDeathUnderATruck.

We were all so hopeful her perm would answer all her questions that we ignored everyone’s advice of , “Lynn, don’t do it. Nothing good can come from this.” And my sis had to wander around work looking like the only thing missing was a bone running through her nose. I’m still amazed she didn’t kill me.

And this is what I see with authors who want to be published  so badly that they turn their back on compelling evidence of a publisher’s weak points. They’ve heard the siren’s song – “We’d like to offer you a contract,” and no amount of warning can sway their decision. No one believes bad things can happen. After all, they’ve worked so hard on their books and, gosh, the editor is so nice. What could go wrong?

Lots.

  • Your book could be poorly edited.
  • Your publisher has no distribution, so your book could never sell, unless you sell it from the trunk of your car.
  • Your publisher could be abusive and threaten you.
  • Your publisher could never pay you royalties due you.
  • Your publisher could have no clue what they’re doing.

New publishers pop up every day – many of them nowadays are e-publishers – and you have to be so careful about placing your book in the wrong hands.

“But they’re so nice!” - A nice editor who compliments you on your writing is nice and it certainly feels good, but it’s not a litmus for ability to get your book sold. Experience and a successful track record  speaks more loudly than a compliment and a smile. But, sadly, authors become blinded by the pearly teeth and sign with inexperienced and under-educated publishers all the time…even when they’ve been warned by others who have done their research.

Hopey Hope is great, but it comes with its own set of blinders. If you go to a site like the Water Cooler, asking for advice, then you owe it to your book and yourself to actually listen. Just today, I read yet another author who, despite all warnings to run, held up her Hopey Hope card and said that based on the publisher’s website and things she’d heard elsewhere, she was hopeful. So she chose to disregard all the warnings – given from experienced people in the biz, I might add – and walked into the light.

You just can save ‘em all, and that’s why these ineffective publishers exist. The prevailing attitude seems to have changed from, “I’ll work at perfecting my craft so I can be well-published,” to “I’ll keep running down a long list to find someone who will publish me.”

And just like my sister’s decision to let me perm her hair, these authors will find their decisions aren’t based on sound advice from others, but from wanting something far too much that it shorts out their decision-making capabilities.

You wouldn’t let a blind man work on your car, so why would you let someone who lacks the ability to create a quality product and get it out to market sign your book? Sometimes Hopey Hope sucks stale Twinkie cream.

“They Did a Great Job”

Keeping along this same theme, there’s the “I went with them based on a recommendation.” This is prevalent on writer’s boards. Everyone is eager to find information on a publisher, so it’s gold when someone who is actually with that publisher chimes in to give their opinions. Invariably, the opinions are while the author is still in the honeymoon phase with their publisher, meaning they’re in editing and don’t have a finished product that’s out in the marketplace.

So they chime in to say, “Oh, I lurve my editor! She is an excellent editor, and is so thorough! And she’s so fast in getting back to me.” In nearly every case, the author hasn’t been published before, so they aren’t in a position to distinguish a “good” edit from a crappy edit. Additionally, it’s not at all unusual for there to be a lot of communication back and forth…it’s editing, after all.

Editing is subjective. I’ve seen many books from the Big Guys that made me want to perform a ritualistic eye bleach while wondering what twelve-year-old rested their fingers upon this book. Conversely, I’ve seen fabulously edited books from all kinds of publishers – big and small. The ultimate proof is in the reviews and sales.

  • Does the publisher have great distribution and good sales?
  • Do their books win awards and have good reviews from known sources?

That’s the danger of the honeymoon phase when discussing a publisher whose abilities are in question. Authors are high on life at this point because they’re actively involved in the production of their book. That sheen, however, fades dramatically when the book is done and sent out to market. Reality sets in when they see that their books won’t ever be in the bookstores, will have no distribution, and the only way their books will sell is if they personally sell them.

If you’re tempted to listen to an author’s recommendation regarding a publisher, make sure they aren’t in the honeymoon phase, but are on the back end of having their book in the marketplace.

What kind of coverage does their book have?
What are sales like?
How much promotion and marketing did the publisher do?

At that point, if authors say, “They did a great job,” you have verifiable proof of those claims. That’s why the standard reply to the “I lurve them” is “Come back in a year and tell us your experiences.” Most never do because they found out the hard way that their publisher wasn’t what they’d hoped they’d be.

When asking for recommendations, it’s imperative to know where the author is in the production process because that could vastly influence their opinion. I’ve seen this time and time again when someone listens to their Hopey Hope side and goes against the prevailing advice.

When asking for recommendations, you owe it to yourself to look at all opinions, not just the ones that tell you what you want to hear. It could be the difference between abject sorrow and delirious joy.

Open Letter to Agents – and a warning to authors…

Formatting. Yes,  I know I just blogged about it, but this has a bit of a different twist. When I receive partials or fulls from agents, I have a higher expectation of excellence – especially if it’s from a solid agent. I expect that all their ducks will be in a row, and a big part of this is making sure your manuscript is properly formatted.

You’d think agents would ensure that this simple element would be addressed, but I’m amazed at how many partials I receive that are dreadfully out of whack. It’s not that I’m some snobbo who won’t touch a less-than-perfect manuscript. It’s a matter of being extremely fond of my eyes and their ability to see. So when I get a manuscript that has no indents and an extra carriage return to denote a new paragraph, my eyes complain bitterly because the differentiation of that extra carriage return is minimal with a 1.5 or double-spaced format. This means my baby blues get very tired very fast because there’s no break. It’s all text and very little white space.

So, authors, don’t assume your agent will call you to task on your formatting. Be a good girl scout and be prepared. With all the information on the internet, there is no legit excuse for not knowing how to format a manuscript.

Know Your Competition

I know I harp on this so much that I now see books floating past me in my dreams. Either that or I need to lay off the beagle’s chocolate martinis before bedtime. Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, you need to know your genre. Who’s hot and who’s getting recognition? And I’m not just talking about the Big Names, but the solid mid-lister books that sell quite respectably and you hear about.

How does your book compare in your genre?
Has this been done before?
What makes your book unique?
Why would readers want to read your book?

These are questions that many authors don’t ask themselves, and this lack of knowledge betrays them when they get to the query stage. We editors gotta sell your book to a whole sales team, those magic bundles of love who have seen it all and done it all. They know books and genre like I know the beagle’s soft groans means she’s been out partying with the Dalmations again. They know when something is unique and when it’s a” been thar, done that, we don’t need it.”

If I can’t convince the sales guys, then how good do you think my chances are of them pitching it with huge enthusiasm? I’m not just a humorless windbag because it thrills my blackened heart. Convincing people to love and buy a book is like walking uphill carrying a ten-ton boulder…on ice. The better prepared you are, the better able you are to advocate your book’s brilliance to me.

Preparation – The Book Proposal

I’ve discussed book proposals before – here’s a link to my other posts. Effectively advocating your book takes big preparation, and I always recommend writing a book proposal…even if you write fiction…because it forces you to think about all the nitpicky questions you’ll be asked at some point. Do you have to do this? ‘Course not. But look at it this way – if I’m given two books of equal quality and desirability, except one query states that they have a full proposal prepared and the other doesn’t, which way do you think I’ll lean?

The more information I have going into a partial read, the clearer picture I have of the book’s possibilities, and the more excited I am about taking the next step of asking for the full, and discussing the book with the sales guys.

There are all kinds of proposals, but the best one I’ve seen to date is from one of our new authors, Amanda Adams, author of Heart Warriors (release June 2012). Her proposal was so keenly thought out, and had anticipated my every question, that she gave me no reason to say no. That is preparation.

The view from my batcave is this: Preparation is the best defense in becoming the cream that will float to the top. Obviously, there are no guarantees – what is in life, right? – but those who take the extra step to anticipate are giving themselves the best chances of all. And I do want you to be successful.

9 Comments | manuscript format, publishing | Permalink
Posted by lynnpricewrites

The beagle has taken over…

July 16, 2011

Want to know what this says? You can only read it on a barcode scanner on your smart phone. Heh. Heh.

You can create your own barcode here. Think of it – you can say all sorts of naughty things (because I’m a beagle, and that’s what I do), and no one would know what you were saying unless they had the barcode program on their phone. I d/loaded a freebie barcode scanner program on my cell phone.

Ahh…the beagle mind doth runneth…

-The Beagle

P.S. The first one who figures it out wins a free beagle purse.

7 Comments | beagles behaving badly | Permalink
Posted by lynnpricewrites

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