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Writing the Follow-up Novel -- You Aren’t Really a Sophomore
by: Richard Cox
You’ve heard this story before.

The writing bug comes early. You’re a kid with ideas, with a desire to get them on paper, and one day you realize that you’re not ever going to stop. You also realize that some people actually make a living writing books, and since you’re going to be doing it anyway, why not get paid for the effort? You figure you’ll write a novel, find an agent to represent it, and land a fat publishing contract. Use the advance to pay for your mortgage, give yourself plenty of time to write another book. And so on.

For most of us it isn’t that easy.

What you actually do is write a novel (a science thriller, in my case) in the evenings after work, spend a year or so on it, and then submit it to ten agents. You’re rejected by all of them, so you rewrite the book and submit it to a different list of ten. All of those agents reject you, too. You keep trying. After forty or so rejections, you begin to suspect this novel isn’t going to sell. You’ve spent thousands of hours on it and the last thing you want to do is shove it into a drawer, but you don’t have any other ideas.

Then one day, out of the blue, you think of one. You sit down and write and realize how much your skills have improved. The words pour out of you. A year later you've written the first draft of a second novel (Rift, in my case) and you eagerly submit the thing to agents, knowing this time you’ve got a winner.

More rejections. Lots of them. You consider giving up, but by now you’re determined more than ever to succeed. And finally, miraculously, an agent agrees to represent you. He asks for a couple more rewrites, but that’s okay. You’ve come this far. You’ll do anything to break into print.

After several months you’re done with the manuscript. Your agent submits it to publishers, and all you get is more rejections.

But then one day you answer the phone, and it’s your agent (what a couple of magical words those are -- “your agent”) announcing that an editor is interested in your novel. He tells you to expect a call from this editor. During the call, your agent says, you might be asked if you’re willing to write another science thriller. This, you realize, is because the editor might be thinking of a two book deal, so you eagerly say yes, you would be happy to write another science thriller.

There’s only one small problem -- you don’t have any ideas for another science thriller. The inspiration for a novel is an elusive thing, and it doesn’t come around often. But this is your writing career on the line, so you’d better think of another idea, and fast.

During my agent search, over the course of eight years, I only had a couple of ideas that could support a novel. And yet, after speaking to the prospective editor, I went home, hopped on the Internet, and within a couple of hours had come up with the basic premise for my second novel, The God Particle.

How did I manage to do this? I suppose I owe some of my success to Tim Berners-Lee. In 1980, while working as an independent contractor at CERN (a physics facility in Europe), Lee proposed the idea that became the World Wide Web, a now ubiquitous network of information that allows users to research information in a nonlinear, associative way. You read about an idea, click on hypertext links to other, related ideas, and pretty soon you end up learning about subjects that weren’t even on the radar when you started.

This is exactly what I did. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been interested in science and spirituality, the different ways they describe the world around us. I’m also interested in the amazing abilities of the human brain. So I went to Google and typed in something like “god science brain universe consciousness.” I don’t remember exactly what sites and pages this search returned, but every time I visited a page I learned something new. Part of what I read was pure speculation, but a lot of essays were written about hard scientific research. Everything I found positioned the subject matter a slightly different way, or mentioned something completely new, and so I clicked and I clicked and I clicked some more. The World Wide Web never looked so good to me.

I began working on the new book, and a few days later received the most important phone call of my life. I was having lunch in an Italian restaurant when my agent called to tell me that my novel, Rift, had been purchased by the prospective editor. This is a moment that can only be experienced once, and it is special. I don’t think I had a coherent thought the rest of the day.

The book deal in fact was for two books, so it was a good thing I’d already begun writing the next one. In the days that followed, many people asked if I was worried about being paid for a book that hadn’t even been written yet. But when you’ve spent your entire adult life working toward publication, seeing that dream become reality drives you like never before. You find energy reserves that until then had been hidden from you. You’re suddenly able to see the positive side of every situation. You’re essentially born anew.

But you still have to sit down and write the book. You have to write every day in which it’s realistically possible -- even some days when it isn’t. When you’re finished, you have to write it again, and again, and when your editor sends it back requesting significant changes, you realize how fortunate you are to have such a talented person involved in the creative process. You don’t worry about the advance on an unwritten work because by now you’ve written a couple of novels (you aren’t really a sophomore), and you know you can do it again.

And miracle of miracles, the second one turns out better than the first. Earns rave reviews. You only hope someone will buy the darn thing.

In the meantime you’ve written a third one and are sketching ideas for a fourth. It’s what you’ve always wanted, even if it hasn’t taken the exact form you expected.

You’re a writer.

Copyright © 2005 Richard Cox



About the author:
Richard Cox is the author of the new book The God Particle (Published by Del Rey; May 2005; $13.95US/$21.00CAN; 0-345-46285-8) as well Rift. He lives in Tulsa, OK, and is currently working on another novel.

For more information, please visit the author's website at www.richardcox.net.




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Steps to a Writing an Effective Press Releases
 by: Diana Ennen

Want to get the most media attention and spotlight for your business? Then the first place to start is with a GREAT press release. Now I can almost see half of you leaving now, dreading the thought of having to write one of these. But wait!! I’m going to show you easy methods to make your press release work for you and get the attention it deserves. Ready? Let’s go.

We’ll briefly go over the basics because of their importance. Editors want to see things done the RIGHT way. I would bet that a lot of good releases simply get tossed out just because they aren’t set up properly. To a busy editor, that all too familiar “10 second glance” says a lot for you and your business; it let’s them know if you’ve done your research enough to warrant that release to be placed in their newspaper or magazine.

Here are your essentials:

"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE" on the top left of the page.

Your contact name, phone number, e-mail address, and website follows.

Headline is next, normally in bold and centered on the page. Summarize what the release is about and capture their attention. Spend almost as much time on your headline as you do writing the release. It’s that important.

The press release body starts with the location of the release and the date (Margate, Florida, May 5, 2005.)

Most press releases are between 200-500 words, and no more than a page. The first paragraph has the most important information. Don’t save the best for last, it won’t get read. In this paragraph answer the questions, who, what, when, where and why?

It is recommended that you write press releases in the 3rd person and use short sentences and paragraphs. Do not go over board, trying to dazzle the editor, it won’t work.

Target your release. You will be sending your release to a specific audience so make sure that in your release you keep to what would appeal to that audience. What don’t they know that you can add? Nothing works better than getting an “AAH HAA” when an editor is reviewing your release.

Provide statistics. Do some research and find some relevant information that applies. You can easily do this through Google. Once you find your quote, do a Google search or Yahoo quote on that particular topic. However, don’t stop on the first Google link and take that for gospel. Research it a bit further. Have it come from a respectable company or magazine.

Include relevant quotes from experts in your field that will reinforce what you are saying. Approach authors, leaders in your Industry, and other experts that back up the facts you are stating in your release. They will normally appreciate the added publicity and you get the quote you’re looking for. For example, as an author I’ll often get asked to provide a quote for an article on home-based businesses or the virtual assistant industry. I welcome the opportunity as it provides me more publicity.

Also, if you have a satisfied client that you feel will add credibility to your Release, add a quote from them as well. The first time you mention the expert, write out their full name. Then list them by last name or Mr. and Mrs. Smith only. I normally prefer the last name.

The last paragraph should be your call to action. You’ve talked the whole release about your business or product, now tell them what to do with the knowledge they just acquired.

At the bottom of the release include ### to indicate you are done, followed by a short bio. Make sure if you include your website that you include http:// in front of it for search engine recognition.

Your bio should include your information, any books authored, etc. Double check this for accuracy. At this point, you’re tired and done with the Release. But if it goes out to the world with the wrong web address, the valuable time spent even writing the Release has been wasted.

That’s it; the basics for writing a press release! Now one other thing I’d like to add in, they work! They truly work. I’ve had a recent release get accepted by PRWeb (and yes they do reject bad ones!), and then go on to hit several other major newspapers and media outlines and the Google alert, which resulted in our paper in the area contacting me. You want to set up a Google news alert for your name so that you can follow the path and see when you make the news so you can follow up. Also, PRWeb at http://www.prweb.com has complete guidelines for setting up a good press release. Go with the extra money and spend $20.00. It’s worth it to get the additional exposure.

About The Author
 

Diana Ennen is the author of numerous books including Virtual Assistant: the Series, Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA, Words From Home, Start, Run and Profit from a Home-Based Word Processing Business & the Home Office Recovery Plan. She specializes in publicity and book marketing and is president of Virtual Word Publishing http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com and http://www.Publicity-VA.com. Articles are free to be reprinted as long as the author’s bio remains intact

 

 

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