Ascent from Hell on Day 24 - Book Proposal DONE!

Procrastination gave way to mad pressure and psycho-focus to kick the crap out of a book proposal I've been working on since 2008.  I've imagined the book Thin Places: Irish Gateways to the Otherworld  for fifteen years.  But in 2008, I got serious.  I decided I'd write a killer book proposal.  I took a week off work.  I got about 8000 words done - hated it and shelved it.  And went back to my day job.

I revisited the book proposal in 2009 and in 2010 and wasn't motivated to work on it.  I knew I was procrastinating. .. actually, make that avoiding.  I wrote three books between 2008 and 2012, all in the time I should have been writing - THE book.  But for those other books, I had deadlines from publishers that pushed me forward.

For you non-writers out there (is anyone out there?), a non-fiction writer who hopes to land a commercial publisher does not write the book first.  She writes a proposal, and sends that to an agent or publisher.  The publisher reviews it and determines many things.  Like ... is there really enough there for a book? Is there a market for a this content?  Can this chick write? If she can write, can she promote it?  Does she have passion?  Does she credibility?  Can she go the long haul?  If the answers to these questions are mostly YES, the publisher may make an offer.

Educating Myself About Writing a Book Proposal

When I started this proposal in 2007 I did all the right things.  I bought Jeff Herman's book, Write the Perfect Book Proposal.  I read it cover to cover and highlighted all the good parts.  This book is not for the faint of heart and does not make writing the proposal look easy.  But I practiced and practiced and in the process learned some good points.  In fact, after my crash-course with Jeff I submitted my book proposal to The History Press for Haunted Eastern Shore: Ghostly Tales from East of the Chesapeake  and I got a call within ten minutes of hitting the SEND button on my email.  They accepted the proposal and I had a contract within a week.

But that was a little book of ghost stories.  The Thin Places proposal was a serious book.  So I studied some more.  I ordered Mary DeMuth's e-book on book proposals for $25.  It was well worth the investment.  She offers some great ideas.  Funny how she came out with a book two years after I ordered it called Thin Places.  Though her book wasn't about mystical sites, I always wondered if my email signature sunk into her subconscious and resurrected when she was thinking of book titles.

Then I download every article I could find on writing book proposals.  The end result?  I still procrastinated.  I still avoided doing the dirty deed --- writing the proposal.

As my last three posts on this blog indicate, I finally pushed myself, this month to finish the proposal. I set my own deadline, took off work for a week.  I publicly announced I'd imposed a deadline on my blogs, twitter and facebook.  I gave myself ten days to finish the proposal.

But in that ten days I found so many things to do ... besides the proposal.  I looked at it... played with it... wrote a few words... made a few revisions.  But I couldn't finish it.

In fact ... I didn't even like it.  I liked myself even less. 

What Saved Me from a Writer's Death by Procrastination

I tried a new tactic.  Outside pressure.  I queried three agents.  My friend Melanie Rigney (you should subscribe to her blog about Faith, Writing and Life in the 50s), an author and former editor of Writers Digest Magazine recommended two agents.  I found another one in the Acknowledgement section of True Balance: A Common Sense Guide for Renewing Your Spirit.

I sent them all three agents an email late Friday night, with my best hook, my most passionate account of what Thin Places: Irish Gateways to the Otherworld would deliver, and why now is the right time for it to hit the shelves, and why it would sell like energy-saving electric space heaters to homeowners with oil fired furnaces.  I asked them to allow me to forward the proposal (which of course, wasn't finished).

By Saturday morning one of the agents emailed me back asking for the proposal.  She even gave me a date - "I'd like to review your proposal Monday of next week.  Please send as an attachment."

Wow!  I didn't have a proposal.  I only had 29 pages of unfinished, disjointed, unexciting schlock.   I spent a mad 48 hours rewriting, editing and - yes - finishing the proposal.  I hit the last return on my keyboard at 5:36 am Monday morning, March 12th.  Just 24 days after my 10 day self-imposed deadline.  I'd had a total of six hours sleep since Saturday morning.

Monday morning, agent #2 sent me an email asking to see the proposal.

Why didn't I think of querying agents 3 years ago?

Dan Burgoyne Reviews the Proposal ... and is sorry.

My completed proposal was 10,492 words with ten images and 28 pages.  Now for a second set of eyes.  I handed the printed proposal to Dan Burgoyne with a red pen and said, "Please read this carefully, you know I'm dyslexic."

He came into my office 30 minutes later pen in hand.  I could tell he didn't love it.  Dread set in.  I was just about to start work at my day job with a fried brain from no sleep.  I foolishly inquired, "How did you like it?"

His face said it all.  He hated it.  "You're trying too hard.. repeating yourself ... it's disjointed."

I said, "What the (insert expletive here) do you know?"

He said, "I knew you wouldn't take this well."

I said, "Did I ask you to critique content?  Didn't I hand you a red pen?  Just copy edit."

He said, "You only want me to find typos - really.  That's all you want?"

I said, "Yes."

He left my office with his red pen.  I remember thinking, "You stupid, stupid man."

Then I cried. Then went to my day job.

At lunch, I pulled out the laptop and reviewed the proposal again.  Dan Burgoyne was right.  It was crap. Actually, just the hook and first two pages were crap... which is like .... the entire thrust of the proposal.

I highlighted the first two pages of text and hit DELETE. Then gathering all possible mojo from the Communion of Saints and everybody dead who ever loved me ... I started a rewrite.

When it was done, I liked it.  I sent it off to Agent #1 and Agent #2.


Now ..... praying for the next step.   Please, God ... a publisher.

This chapter is closed.

*

Research Says - I Should Write a Book - Day 6

Anita - She never wrote a book.

I'll never forget what my mother said when I handed her a copy of my first published book.  She was in a nursing home, in her bed.  I said, "Ma, look I finally got published."  She took my book in her feeble hands.  She turned it over.  She flipped through the pages ... said nothing.  Then she handed it back to me and said, "I should write a book."

You had to know Anita.  She was trying to keep me from getting a big head.  Her response amused me.  By then I was 47 years old and had long stopped looking for her approval, because I was NEVER going to get it .... EVER. 

This is why I credit my mother with being one of the most influential people in my success.   If she'd been all gushy, constantly telling me how good I was, I'd never become such an overachiever.   She probably knew that, but I digress.

 This Book Proposal Business
A key piece to any book proposal is identifying the markets for your book and convincing a potential publisher that it's worth the cash (now minimally $100K with most publishing houses) to invest in your project.  They want you to prove there's a market.

My Market Research for Thin Places: Irish Gateways to the Otherworld

Primary Markets:  The figures I uncovered in my marketing research show that the primary markets  - Tourists to Ireland, earth-based religious groups, the Mind, Body Spirit genre, readers of Celtic Christianity titles - rank in the millions.

Secondary Markets:  The secondary markets - genealogy trackers, tour groups / guides, hospitality industry and organizations with an Irish, Celtic, or earth-based spiritual mission have millions in this country alone.

Subsidiary Rights:  Then there's the subsidiary rights - book clubs, foreign translations, audio (podscasts) and video (I secretly want to model Rick Steves and have a Thin Places PBS show where instead of saying "Keep on travelin'" at the end, I say "May all your places be thin.")

Spin off Possibilities:  The spin-off possibilities are huge - Thin Places in Wales, Thin Places in Britain, Thin Places in America ....Fat Ladies in Thin Places. 

Merchandising:  I can see note cards, calendars, screen savers, T-shirts, book marks, grocery bags ... the possibilities are endless.  Who wouldn't love some photo of a mystical Irish landscape plastered on chachkies  < -- yes, I looked it up in the Urban dictionary.  Yiddish word for trinkets.

The markets combined with my platform indicate this book would be a profitable venture.  I feel better now and am a tad more motivated to finish the proposal by my self-imposed deadline of  Sunday, February 26th. 

But today ..... I'm taking off, heading south and traveling across the largest estuary in North America - and the most studied estuary in the world - the Chesapeake Bay.  And I'll be crossing it by way of one of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World - The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

So day 6 is a day off (again).  Going to visit my girlfriend, Del in Norfolk. 


Related Posts:

Day 4 - I Hate Myself - Television is a Seductive Mistress

This Introduction Sucks - Book Proposal - Day 2

10 Days of Hell - I WILL Finish Thin Places Book Proposal

 

 

Day 4 - I Hate Myself - Television is a Seductive Mistress

Margarita, good friends, good times.

As day four ticks on in my Ten days of Hell - I WILL finish the Thin Places Book Proposal, I must perform double duty.  Day 3 was a waste.  I didn't even look at the proposal.  I went out drinking with my friends in the scenic town of Berlin Maryland (aka Hale Maryland - Runaway Bride was filmed there). 

I had a fabulous crab cake, made with lump crab meat from Philips Seafood in Baltimore.  Our appetizer was mussels from Prince Edward Island served with hot bread <--this was pure food magic.  I washed it down with a very large frozen Margarita.  Service was excellent at the Atlantic Hotel.  Atmosphere was superb.  The company of our old friends Gary and Maureen Grant, couldn't have been better. A heartwarming reunion in one of my favorite Eastern Shore small towns.

Of course this Sunday outing distracted me from my commitment of working daily on my book proposal for Thin Places: Irish Gateways to the Otherworld.  I've allotted myself 10 days to meet my self-imposed deadline of February 27th.  I've been working (or not working) on this proposal for about 4 years.

You might say, "Well, no big deal.. you need a day off ... it's good to get out... don't work on Sunday ...what's more important that maintaining good friendships? ... you deserve it (I don't deserve it)"  All these excuses are like gateway drugs to that awful addiction of procrastination.  It's ruined my writing life.  

And if all I took was a few hours in the day for this enjoyable meal and reunion, I'd not feel guilty.  But now I'm resorting to self flagellation rivaling the early Christian monks, because I got home at 2:30 p.m. with a good 8 hours worth of uninterrupted time to devote to writing and I chose to .... I actually made a decision to .... put off writing and watch The First 48 on A&E | HD. 

That was only the beginning.

Then it was another episode of The First 48 - actually three in a row.  That stuff is addictive.  I watched them all, then I fell asleep on the couch. 

I woke up at 6:30 p.m. hating myself for having wasted 4 hours.  I went upstairs, sat down at my desk opened up my proposal and realized I needed my notebook (which was downstairs in the same room as the tv).  While I was in the living room I thought to myself "Hmmm... Sunday night.  This is the season finale for Downton Abbey and also the night for a new episode Once Upon a Time." I needed to set the DVR to record these. 

I turned the television back on.  Hit the Guide, went to the PBS channels and noticed that Philadelphia PBS (which we're fortunate to get) was running the ENTIRE SEASON 2 of Downton Abbey leading up to the season finale at 9:00 pm. 

Yes, I did.

I turned on Downton Abbey (having already seen all the episodes including the season finale), and I watched Maggie Smith and that fabulous cast for four and half hours .... until 11:00 pm.  And if I wasn't committed to enough acts that would invoke self-hatred in the morning, I also downed a box of potato chips, two glasses of wine and an Edy's Real Fruit ice pop (lemonade flavor), repressing the memories of the 2000+ calories I'd ingested at the Atlantic Hotel earlier in the day. 
 

Now, it's 11:11 a.m. on Monday and I'm still procrastinating.  So I'll sign off now and dive back into the proposal, hopefully accomplishing two days worth of work. 



Related Posts
Day 2 - This Introduction Sucks
Day 1 -  Ten Days of Hell - I WILL Finish Thin Places