Jane Friedman's Blog: Jane Friedman, page 221

Bestselling Author Turns Down $500K Deal to Self-Publish

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The breaking news today is that NYT bestseller Barry Eisler turned down a $500K deal
from his publisher, St. Martin's, in order to self-publish his next book.




In honor of the occasion, he and JA Konrath have a conversation that extends 12,000
words. You can read/download
the entire thing here as a PDF. It's worth reading in its entirety.



Below I've summarized a few of the key points, along with related highlights from
the conversation.




1. In the self-publishing arena, the most profitable use of
an author's time is writing more books. And self-publishing helps you focus more on
the writing itself.

Barry: Now, with digital books, once again there's no more profitable
use of an author's time than writing. Not to say that authors don't need to have a
strong online presence; of course they do. But any time you're thinking about some
other promotional activity—a blog post, a trip to a convention, an hour on Facebook—you
have to measure the value of that time against the value of writing and publishing
a new story. The new story earns money, both for itself and your other works. …



Joe: But it's even more than that. … A virtual shelf, like Amazon or Smashwords,
carries all my titles, all the time. And I don't have to compete with a NYT bestseller
who has 400 copies of their latest hit on the shelf, while I only have one copy of
mine. We each take up one virtual space per title. … Virtual shelf life is forever.
In a bookstore, you have anywhere form a few weeks to a few months to sell your title,
and then it gets returned. This is a big waste of money, and no incentive at all for
the bookseller to move the book.



But e-books are forever. Once they're live, they will sell for decades. Someday, long
after I'm gone, my grandchildren will be getting my royalties.



…





Barry: A lot of people don't realize—and I probably wouldn't have realized myself
if you hadn't pointed it out—that the appropriate measure for determining how much
your books can earn you in digital is forever.




In paper, with rare exceptions, there's a big upfront sales push, followed by either
total evaporation or by years of low backlist sales. Digital isn't like that.



Joe: Time is the ultimate long tail. Even with a big wad of money upfront,
if something sells forever, the back end is what ultimately counts.



[My note: For
more on this issue of the long tail of sales, read this excellent post.]

2. You don't have to spend more time marketing
and promoting if you self-publish. Anyone who says you have to be a marketing genius
to succeed is wrong.

Barry: A talent for marketing is going to help you in any business
endeavor, but there are too many people making money now in self-publishing for an
outbreak of genius to be the explanation.



… I know some people are going to be reading this and thinking, "Okay, but how will
I ever cut through all that digital clutter? How will I ever get noticed without a
publisher?"



Joe: How did anyone ever get noticed with a publisher?



Barry: Exactly. Walk into a bookstore—even with today's diminished inventory,
there are tens of thousands of titles. How do you get noticed? Getting noticed and
other aspects of marketing is a challenge in any business, digital, paper, or otherwise.
It's too big a topic to cover here, but for now, let's just say that it's hardly a
unique challenge for digital books. And, as you and many others have demonstrated,
it's hardly an insurmountable challenge, either.

3. You don't need a traditional or "legacy"
deal first (to help you develop an audience), before being able to succeed at self-publishing.

Barry: [People say] "Konrath only succeeded in self-publishing
because he had a legacy deal first." And then I point to your various blog posts where
you show how much money is being made by self-published writers who have never had
legacy deals.



Joe: I
think I contradicted the "legacy deal first" argument pretty well here.




Barry: You demolished it. The final argument I've been hearing … is that, "Okay,
some people are making money in self-publishing, but it's always the same names."
But that list of names keeps getting longer. The critics are going to be reduced to
saying, "Okay, some people are making money in self-publishing, but it's always the
same five thousand names." The critics will be self-publishing themselves before then.

4. A publisher's key value right now is in paper-book
distribution. And even that value is becoming highly questionable or even irrelevant.

Barry: On the digital side of the ledger, publishers don't add
much at all because there's nothing to distribute. Or, to put it a little more accurately,
what publishers can add on the digital side (editing, copyediting, proofreading, cover
design, jacket copy, formatting) can all be done by other players at least as well.




So what an author needs to consider today is fairly straightforward: "Is what I'm
giving up on the digital side by taking on this legacy partner balanced or exceeded
by the partner's paper muscle?:



The answer is going to be different with different authors. James Patterson, to use
an extreme example, sells bazillions of books in every conceivable paper outlet. He's
clearly better off with a legacy partner than he would be on his own. But as bookstores
close and digital readers proliferate, more and more authors will decide that what
legacy publishers take from them in digital sales isn't worth what legacy publishers
earn for them in paper sales.

Mike Shatzkin, an industry insider and analyst, has
offered his excellent take on "What does it all mean" over at his blog. His key
points are:



Konrath & Eisler don't do the math on the loss of print sales & merchandising,
and how to address it.



If Barnes & Noble (or a wholesaler like Ingram) were smart, they would see an
opportunity to strike a deal with authors like Eisler to license the print edition
for their customers.



Offer your thoughts on the situation in the comments, particularly on the following
issues:



How can traditional publishers prevent authors like Eisler from walking away? If they
can't prevent it, does that mean they can't survive in the long term?



Have we now reached the moment when a new author (with zero legacy/traditional deal
or presence) can expect to earn more money over the course of their career by going
the independent route?

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Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 3/18/11)

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I watch Twitter, so you don't have to. Visit each Sunday for the week's best Tweets.
If I missed a great Tweet, leave it in the comments.



Looking for more great resources? Sign up for "3
Happy Things," where I curate more advanced tools/content and deliver it via e-mail.



Also, check out these live, online classes from Writer's Digest:



How
Writers Can Use Amazon to Boost Their Sales, March 24 ($79)





















Best of the Best

Great edit tips -> The Delete Key:
The Published Writer's Best Friend


@inkyelbows



100 Things About a Novel


@AlexanderChee



Do 99-cent e-books attract the wrong kind of reader? Fascinating
discussion with @zoewinters


@otherlisa)



Lessons on Self-Publishing Success from Amanda Hocking


@nickdaws

Craft + Technique

What is the most important moment in your
story?


@storyfix




Too Much of a Good Thing: Overplotting Your Novel


@Writeitsideways




Head-hopping as seen by publishing pros


@elizabethscraig

Publishing News + Trends

Ebooks
are making me recall the history of mass-market publishing


@mikeshatzkin



Interview with @MargaretAtwood about tech and writing
+ publishing: "No e-books without authors."


@dbschlosser




Getting a read on the future of publishing (Globe and Mail)


@jafurtado



Richard Nash: There's no future in making money solely
from selling digital content


@jafurtado

Marketing + Promotion

Great article on sprucing up your Amazon
page from @craftycmc


@thecreativepenn



How to Write a Press Release: A Mini-Tutorial


@JFBookman

Social Media

Great step-by-step guide to recording
a video interview by @MichaelHyatt


@BubbleCow



When it comes to building your social media presence,
there's no such thing as too early


@NathanBransford

Twitter

Best way to get a literary agent's attention
on Twitter - @AlexisGrant advice

@inkyelbows



A
no-nonsense guide to sharing and promoting content on Twitter


@MackCollier



Using Twitter to get a book deal by @leeaharris


@TheFutureBook

Self-Publishing + E-Publishing

Top 4 Book Formatting Mistakes to Avoid


@JFbookman



Making eBook Conversion Decisions


@JFbookman



Authors, be careful not to overpay for POD services


@dirtywhitecandy

The Writing Life + Fun Stuff

Scalzi's e-publishing Bingo card captures
most talking points in the debate.


@dbschlosser




Why panel sessions suck (and how to fix them)


@andrewsavikas

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4 Key Categories of Self-Publishing

Let's start with the obvious.

The self-publishing landscape is changing rapidly.

It's becoming more difficult to explain the options available not just
because there ARE more options, but because there are subtle shades of differences
between the options that aren't immediately clear or apparent—even to people inside
the industry.



With this post, I hope to establish some categories to help us talk about the different
options now available.



First, let me emphasize: There is no one-size-fits-all self-publishing option. It
all depends on your goals, your skill level, and the audience you're trying to reach.



I would classify most self-publishing options into these 4 categories:



Print-on-Demand (POD) "Full Service"

Print-on-Demand (POD) "Free Service"

E-Book Single Channel

E-Book Multiple Channel



1. Print-on-Demand (POD) "Full Service"


This is the self-publishing option that became very popular in the early 2000s, because
it made self-publishing more affordable than ever. Print-on-demand technology allowed
for books to be printed one at a time, only after an order was placed, avoiding the
necessity for authors to pay for a traditional print run that would most likely sit
in a warehouse somewhere, unsold.



There were many players in this arena at first, but consolidation took hold, and AuthorHouse bought
up the key players but retained their branding, including iUniverse, Xlibris, and
Trafford.




AuthorHouse is now seeking partnerships with traditional publishers to form branded
self-publishing imprints that they service. This has happened so far with Thomas Nelson's
West Bow, Harlequin's Horizons, Hay House, Writer's Digest's Abbott Press (see
new contest here to promote its launch), and also, just recently, Berrett-Koehler.



Key characteristics of this option




Highest priced option for self-publishing since you're paying for "full service" publishing,
which usually includes solid customer service. For better service (e.g., content editing
or copyediting), you have to pay for a higher priced package. It can cost thousands
of dollars, or hundreds, depending on the package you choose.



You have to do nothing, aside from hand over your Microsoft Word document and write
a check.

You have very little control over pricing. (The common complaint is that you can't
price to reasonably compete against a traditionally published paperback.)



You are responsible for all marketing, though of course you can pay for a marketing
package that may or may not be helpful in selling books.

You usually receive the lowest royalty of all options covered here, but it's still
a higher royalty than what a traditional publisher would pay.



2. Print-on-Demand "Free Service"


There are some print-on-demand services that will charge you very little (and who
often advertise "free" versions of the service) as long as you do all the work.



Like full service companies, they do offer "package deals" that help you with cover
design, interior design, etc. But you can avoid these services and pay a very low
fee if you do the work yourself.



Key characteristics of this option




Similar to above—but you buy only the services you need, either by the package or
a la carte; you can save money if you don't need the "full service" POD option. Again,
it can cost thousands of dollars, or hundreds, depending on the package you choose.



You usually receive a lower royalty than other options covered here (with exception
of "full service"), but it's still a higher royalty than what a traditional publisher
would pay.



--



Here is an overview of these first two options and the companies affiliated with each. Please
note: This is NOT an exhaustive list; it's merely to help you understand where
I would place some of the major players.



I've listed Lightning Source in its own corner,
because it is not a self-publishing service, but can be effectively used by self-publishing
authors. Lightning Source is used by traditional publishers to produce POD books.
(BookSurge is another major industry option owned
by Amazon.)




If you have the skill and ability to act like a publishing professional—that is, act
as a BUSINESS—this is the cheapest option and high-royalty option for producing a
print-on-demand book, and you would avoid any connection or branding with a known
self-publishing service company.




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3. E-Book Single Channel


When you self-publish through Amazon Kindle, Barnes
& Noble PubIt! (Nook), Scribd, or Google's
eBookstore, you're publishing through a single channel. Your book isn't purchased
anywhere except through those particular devices or stores, or their affiliates.



Key characteristics of this option




These services are absolutely free. You pay nothing to play. That's because these
services are not providing you with any service except making your work available
for sale in their online store.



Your royalty is typically 70-85% of the retail price—which YOU set.



You have to do all the work of formatting/converting files to meet the requirements
of the channel. (They all have unique requirements.) You have to design your own cover.

You can pull your work off these sites at any time if you get a deal with a traditional
publisher—or if you just decide to do something different.

There is no exclusivity agreement. You can publish your work in one or all of these
places.





4. E-Book Multiple Channel


This situation is exactly like single channel, only you're dealing with a service
that will push your book out to multiple book retail outlets. You can use single and
multiple channel services at the same time.



Here is a chart that helps you understand the division of players. This is NOT
an exhaustive list.







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So, there are the four categories.



Questions to ask yourself before choosing any path




What are my goals? (Does it require a print edition?)

How much help do I need to create a product that will meet my goals?

Does my audience prefer print or digital?

Is price point critical for my audience or genre?

Once you have a product—no matter which path you choose—how will you make people aware
it exists? (Don't expect any of these 4 options, no matter how much money you pay,
to do your marketing for you.)



People
in the industry are saying that e-books are becoming the new mass-market outlet.
New authors such as Amanda Hocking, as well as midlist authors such as JA Konrath,
are using e-book channels to get on bestseller lists and make good money—not publishing
service companies.



But that's a whole other post.



What have I missed? Would you add new or different categories? What are some of the
most important things authors need to know before using any of these options?





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8 iPhone Apps to Grow & Connect With Audience

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Last summer, I did a post on Ultimate
iPhone Apps: 30+ Productivity and Creativity Boosts. In a few months, I'll update
that list, but first, I'd like to share specific iPhone apps that can help you market,
promote, and grow your audience.



I'm dividing the apps into 2 categories:



Key Tools. These are core apps that just about everyone uses to stay on top
of online marketing as well as live events/conferences.





Branch Out and Experiment. If you bring a little creativity and imagination
to these apps to share your story/message, you might become the next marketing wonder.





KEY TOOLS

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Wordpress. If you have a Wordpress-based
blog, this app is a streamlined way to post or adjust pages.





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TweetDeck.
This is my favorite app for using Twitter on my phone. You can sync it with desktop
TweetDeck so that you don't have to rebuild columns or settings.





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Facebook. The mobile version of
the site works well, too, but there are more features on the app.





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FourSquare. This is my favorite app for
"checking in" to places/locations. I only friend people I know very well—thus, I have
about 25 friends on FourSquare—but most are not in Cincinnati. (Many of my colleagues
live in NYC!) FourSquare is an enormously helpful app when attending large events
where you have a number of colleagues in attendance.

BRANCH OUT & EXPERIMENT

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Instagram. This is a photo-sharing app,
and you can "follow" people's photos and post your own. I love how Instagram gives
me a glimpse into all corners of the world. As for my use, I'm primarily uploading
2 things: pictures of my cat and poems. (But
you can see my stream here.) Here's a question for you: How could you use Instagram
to tell a new story every month (through the use of 1 picture per day)? Or tell a
story over the course of a year?






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Broadcastr. I
just covered this new app a couple days ago, but it definitely already belongs
on this list. For any writer obsessed with place, this app should really speak to
you. Go forth and record stories!





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AudioBoo. Imagine podcasting directly from
your phone. This is the app for that! You can link it to Twitter and other platforms,
and make your recordings available for subscription through iTunes. Awesomeness.





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UStream Live Broadcastr. This app
allows you to stream video live, right from your iPhone. Perfect for streaming interviews
live from an event!

--



So that's MY list. How about you? What apps have been critical in your online marketing
or platform growth?

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How to Write a Thriller That Sells

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Tomorrow, novelist Hallie Ephron is teaching
a live course on writing a mystery or thriller that sells.




If you're not familiar with Hallie's advice, here are a few places where you can get
a taste:



The
Art of the Page Turner. This is a recap of the session Hallie did at the Writer's
Digest Conference in January 2011.



7
Reasons Why Your Work May Be Rejected , over at the Guide to Literary Agents
Blog



Writer
Unboxed interview with Hallie Ephron from January 2009






Read
an interview with Hallie Ephron from the Writer's Digest archives (September 2002
issue).



--



Also, there are only about 25 copies left of the March Writer's Digest Kit of the
Month, focused on freelance writing. Click
here to check it out.






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Share Your Stories Using Broadcastr

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A new iPhone app just launched this month that I've already fallen in love with. It's
called Broadcastr.



I had an opportunity to talk with one of the founders, Scott
Lindenbaum, while at SXSW. Here's a little of what he had to say about what the
app can do:

Anybody anywhere in the world can tell a story in
the best way they know how, with their own voice, and share it on an interactive map.




That means that any other user can go on that map virtually … or actually go to those
locations while on a mobile, and use a feature we call Geoplay that plays back the
highest-rated stories based on your physical location, like a museum tour of the world.
… You're still plugged into this invisible layer of memory and storytelling and experience
and history, and you can filter it however you want.

His view on how this tool can be used by writers in particular:

It allows you to extend your presence and your capabilities
as a storyteller beyond the page. When people are out in the world, they can still
engage with your sensibility, your style, your tone, and if they trust you as a storyteller,
they may want that voice chaperoning them through the world.

And here Scott comments on implications for memoirists:

Every story happens somewhere, and the cool thing
about what we're doing is that a lot of those places where things happen no longer
exist. … Yet your memory of that place still exists. And so this is a way to marry
memory back to place, and to have a collective consciousness mapped back onto the
world in the same way it's mapped in our minds, but it's shareable.

Today I recorded my first story using Broadcastr, where I discuss the origins of the
E-Media Division at the College-Conservatory of Music, where I'm a visiting professor. Click
here to listen!




Broadcastr is still in beta, but it's already ranked as "New and Noteworthy" in Apple's
App Store. Go check out their site and sign
up.




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Creating Memoir That's Bigger Than Me, Me, Me

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Today's guest post is from Tracy Seeley,
author of My
Ruby Slippers. Visit her site, or find
out more about her book.




--



Memoir tells stories from our own lives. It says, "This happened to me."  Should
be simple. And yet in writing memoir, we face certain challenges:

How do we rise above a mere retelling of events?

How do we avoid self-indulgence, narcissism, or mere confession? 


How do we make our story compelling to others?  

Meeting these challenges begins with recognizing that events happen in
a context and a memoirist must be more than one person.



Time and Place: Enlarging the Context of Your Story


The story you've come to tell didn't happen in a vacuum. So to get beyond the "me,
me, me" of memoir, consider expanding your sense of time and place.   




The location of events matters. For every place has a multi-layered history and unique
character. Everything from its geological formation to its climate, history and local
stories has contributed to that character and even to who you are. Kathleen Norris' Dakota:
A Spiritual Geography , for example, starts this way:

The High Plains, the beginning of the desert West,
often act as a crucible for those who inhabit them. Like Jacob's angel, the region
requires that you wrestle with it before it bestows a blessing.

From the start, the book focuses on more than "what happened" in Kathleen
Norris' life. It focuses on how the place itself has shaped her experience and its
meaning.



Digging into the history of a place can also help ground your story in more than your
own past. For example, who lived in your house before you did?  Was your subdivision
once a dairy farm? A munitions dump? A town on the Pony Express line? What stories
can you unearth about people who used to live in your town? Before it was even a town,
who was there and what happened? And what does all of this suggest to you about the
meaning of the place, and your story in it?



When I wrote My
Ruby Slippers , I did a lot of research about the places I used to live, and
discovered things that enriched the meaning of my story.  For example, the house
I grew up in stood about a mile from the junction of the Big and Little Arkansas Rivers,
which had been the center of Plains Indian culture for centuries.  With a little
digging into the life ways and beliefs of the people who had lived there before me,
I was able to think of my house as more than the center of my story's universe, but
as one layer in a deeper and more interesting story.



Family history can also be a great trove of information. In Where
I Was From , Joan Didion traces her family story back through generations of
women who "made the crossing" by covered wagon to California. And in all of them,
whom she comes to know through letters, diaries and family stories, she detects a
common character. The women were, above all, pragmatic, "without much time for second
thoughts."  "The past could be jettisoned, children buried and parents left behind."
Didion sees these same traits in her own mother, which brings us to the present of
her own life. This grounds her personal story in family history and family character,
as well as in the familiar American story of westward migration. All of these give
deeper meaning to her tale.



If you're not telling such an expansive story, even a little historical research can
take you beyond the limits of your own memory. In his memoir Dough ,
Mort Zachter retells a story he often heard growing up: how even during a famous blizzard,
his penny-pinching uncles still showed up to work at their bread store. But this had
all happened before Zachter was born, so with a little research, he can tell us that
"On December 26, 1947, snowfall officially began at 5:25 a.m." 




Similarly, looking up events that coalesce around a certain date can elevate your
story into something beyond the moment of a limited self. Dinty Moore's memoir Between
Panic and Desire locates his life in the cultural context of the 60s. He tells
us, for example, that "Leave it to Beaver" debuted on the same day the Soviets launched
Sputnik I. This seemingly unlikely pairing helps create the larger story that Moore
belongs to, and explains the lens through which he sees his life. 




In another section, which introduces us to his own Irish father, Moore tells a host
of mini-stories about other fathers, including the one on Father Knows Best, one in
a newspaper article about a divorce, Emperor Penguin fathers, the actor Tim Allen's
father, and others. In doing so, Moore tells a compelling story about himself and
his father within this wider frame.




The Two Selves of Memoir: Distance, Reflection and Self-Awareness


Even in an enlarged context of time and place, the point of memoir is not really what
happened. It's about what you, the writer, make of what happened. What is its meaning?
Why does it matter?    




To arrive at that meaning requires what memoirist Vivian Gornick calls "detached empathy,"
or a distance between the self who writes and the self things happened to. In that
space, we can explore the meaning of events and think about them on the page. We can
also stand back and reflect on who that other self was at the time events unfolded
and what we think of him or her now.   




An example: Meredith Hall's stunning memoir, Without
a Map , tells how at 16, she became pregnant and her town, school, church and
family all turned against her, shunning her, shutting her out. It's a painful story.
And yet what keeps it from becoming a "poor me" confessional tale is Hall's empathetic
distance, her awareness that her writerly self and her 16-year-old self are not the
same. Hall begins the book recognizing both the distance and the connection between
the two: "Even now, I talk too much and too loud, claiming ground, afraid that I will
disappear from this life, too." 




Shortly after, she looks back at that young self who was forced to disappear: 
"Sometimes, rarely, I get a flicker of understanding … and feel a powerful protectiveness
of that stunned and desperate girl."



A memoirist's reflections can take many forms, even examining the writer's memory
itself. In I
Could Tell You Stories , Patricia Hampl recalls an episode during the Vietnam
War when she is traveling by Greyhound bus to visit her draft-resister boyfriend in
prison. When the bus stops to pick up passengers, the young Hampl watches as outside
her window, a "godlike young man with golden curls" passionately kisses a "stout middle-aged
woman in a flowered house dress." She is fascinated, especially when the woman boards
the bus, sits across from Hampl, tells her the young man is her husband and cryptically
says, "I could tell you stories." Years later, Hampl not only tells us what happened,
but puzzles over why it has stuck with her so long.

Whether it was the unguarded face of love, or the
red gash down the middle of the warring country I was traveling through, or this exhausted
farm woman's promise of untold tales that bewitched me, I can't say.

This thoughtful, empathetic, reflective persona is the real heart of
memoir, the voice that readers will follow and want to know.  The discoveries
it makes over the course of the story, the wisdom it uncovers and brings to the tale,
even its confusions and uncertainties—these will carry the audience through, well
beyond the limits of "me, me, me."  




--



[image error]Find
out more about Tracy Seeley's memoir, My
Ruby Slippers.


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Best Tweets on Break (SXSW)

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Best Tweets is on break due to SXSW, where I've been speaking and attending panels.
We'll be back next week.



Keep an eye out for my special project releasing on April 1, The
Future of Publishing: Enigma Variations. If you'd like to receive updates on this
project, as well as other regular news/insights, sign
up here.




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List of Tweeps most
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The Best Education for Writing Memoir

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Today's post is from regular guest and favorite, Darrelyn
Saloom. Follow her on Twitter, or read
her previous guest posts. Pictured above: Darrelyn's mother in 1969 as
she works her way to owning her own business.




--



Mama owned an answering service and worked a switchboard under a beehive of red hair
that matched her bright lipstick. She had no eyebrows, so she penciled dark, wide
arcs over her large, dollar-bill green eyes. She named the switchboard Board One,
because it held her most devoted customers—the ones who followed her from another
telephone exchange as she finagled her way out of a fiasco and into her own business.




I spent most of my twenties working for my mother. I'd take off now and then for the
Rocky Mountains or the Pacific Northwest. But after a few months, I'd return to South
Louisiana and slap on a headset and plug into one of her ten switchboards. It was
the best job I ever had. Not only did I get a paycheck every two weeks, I amassed
a PhD's worth of education in human nature.



Every day I observed Edward Albee-like dramas played out with Cajun and Texan accents.
Each switchboard held one-hundred phone lines for big and small oil companies, large
trucking conglomerates, and individual hotshot drivers. Some of my favorite characters
were a geologist, a veterinarian, and a political lobbyist. But the most entertaining
was a married couple similar to George and Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?




Armed with a headset and a few patch cords, I was able to connect customers to their
callers who held on another line. This was before cell phones, so messages piled up
while I beeped clients and waited for them to call in, usually from a pay phone. If
clients had numerous calls to return, I'd be asked to stay on the line in order to
dial up each person on the message list. This saved coins and time.




I spoiled my customers by staying with them as Mama and other operators picked up
my slack while I sat privy to men and women's private lives. I'm still amazed people
would allow me to listen to their most intimate conversations. The person they called
did not know I eavesdropped and spoke freely. But my clients knew I was there and
trusted me with their wildest shenanigans.



The only time I had to say no to the practice of listening was during checkout time.
Every plug on ten switchboards would be crossed and stretched in artful webs. The
women beside me had no time to reach over and answer my phone lines while their boards
exploded in a frenzy of buzzing and light. Arms flew and mouths yammered for two hours
straight as operators noted the whereabouts of service personnel, another eye-opening
aspect of the job.




For instance, the couple I alluded to earlier as George and Martha kept me on high
alert. George would check in to tell me he'd be at his girlfriend's apartment as Martha,
his wife, would call with her own secret whereabouts. At the end of the evening, those
two would collide at their residence rip-roaring drunk. George would phone in to slur
that he was home and I could hear Martha spouting obscenities in the background.  



One evening, I realized they'd both checked in to the same hotel with insignificant
others. In a panic I told Mama the situation. Without hesitation she sent an operator
to drive by the hotel to ensure George and Martha's rooms stood far apart so the married
couple wouldn't spot one another at an ice machine or stumbling across the parking
lot. Fortunately, their rooms rumbled at opposite sides of the Holiday Inn.




That kind of quick thinking made my mother a great operator. I was good but not the
best. Like Mama, I learned to recognize voices even in the clearing of a throat. Before
callers could finish saying their names, I'd spin a wheel on top of my switchboard
and pull out a 3x5-inch notebook to record customers' itineraries—tiny journals of
their lives.




It's no wonder I'm compelled to write nonfiction, even though I set out to write fiction.
Perhaps I've just heard too many true stories and observed a cast of characters that
entertained me so thoroughly I've no need to make up things. For a decade, I jotted
down details and worked as a keeper of marvelous secrets and fabulous lies.




It's been twenty-five years since I plugged into other people's dramas. Since then
I've sporadically attended the local university. Mostly I've learned the craft of
writing by reading and studying on my own. Looking back, I now know that it was my
job at Mama's answering service that provided the best education for writing memoir.




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If you'd like to read more essays by writers about day jobs, I highly recommend "Fear," which
originally appeared in The Three Penny
Review by Charlie
Haas, author of the wonderful and quirky novel, The
Enthusiast .




Also, check out Sonny
Brewer's collection of essays by authors such as Howard Bahr, Larry Brown, Rick
Bragg, Pat Conroy, Tom Franklin, Connie May Fowler, John Grisham, Tim Gautreaux, Silas
House, and many more of my favorite writers titled Don't
Quit Your Day Job: Acclaimed Authors and the Day Jobs They Quit.

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Catch SXSW PubCamp Streaming Live!

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Tomorrow I'll be giving a brief talk at SXSW PubCamp in
Austin, along with some outstanding speakers from the publishing industry.



The free event is now wait-listed, but catch
it live and online here.







AGENDA

4:00 p.m. (CST)

Keynote by Sarah Wendell, Smart
Bitches, Trashy Books




4:30 p.m.

A word from publishing insiders


Calvin Reid and Rachel
Deahl, Publishers Weekly



5:00 p.m.


Choosing the Right Publishing Option for Your Project


Jane Friedman




5:30 p.m.

Marketing the Smart (er, Not Annoying) Way

Kat Meyer, Kelly
Leonard, Kevin Smokler and Meg LaBorde
Kuehn



6:00 p.m.

Keynote by Scott Dadich, Executive Director, Editorial Development for Condé Nast
and Rick Levine Senior Vice President, Editorial Operations for Condé Nast

A look at the growing digital publishing industry and Condé Nast's current initiative
to bring all of its 18 award-winning brands to tablets and other mobile devices.

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