So, adrift, me and the butchered great American novel (see last post), I turn to the source of all of man’s accumulated knowledge. As G.W. Bush called it, “The Google.” How to get published…

I The Googled all kinds of stuff – self publishing – literary agents – how the fuck do I get anyone to read this mess – editors… I need an editor, one who is not insane.

I stumble on this one site, looks very legitimate.  They don’t take every submission, they only accept ten percent; acceptance is practically a sure bet to a huge publishing deal. They want the first chapter, synopsis, a bio… [Read more…] about Snake oil… Step right up! Or, How do we get published, really?

So, I’m supposed to write about the editing part of the book publication process. The part that comes after you put down your pencil and ceremoniously declare on Twitter and Facebook and in about one hundred text messages the great American novel has been finished.

This work of art that you have produced, written and lived and breathed is now complete. Flawless, perfect…

You send it out to a few close friends and within 15 minutes you get a text that says, “I found a typo on page three… Oh, and two more on page four and six more on page five…”

It’s at this moment you realize you’ve always hated this overly critical bitch. You unfriend her from Facebook, unfollow her from Twitter and block her from texting you. You find your Christmas card list; wipe her from that too. [Read more…] about Whereupon I Edit Out My Editor…

Let me begin by busting a myth: Writing is not glamorous.

But for the writer, it’s as necessary a breathing… Word vomit if you will, something we must purge ourselves of in order to walk among others without the tops of our heads flying off from the enormous pressure of needing to get the words out of us…

I thought being a journalist was tough work, until I wrote a novel.  [Read more…] about The Journey Begins: One Writer’s Path to Publication