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Friends,
From the Author's Chair, here is newsletter #42 describing my latest up's and down's as I struggle out of the small press arena to become a best selling fiction/thriller author. The strategy: leverage the acclaim and excellent stories of my currently award winning released books (Gold Lust, Gold Raid) to influence a major movie company or large press to purchase the rights to my Gold Lust series. The following event descriptions are not polished, just true. Feel free to forward this news letter to your friends:
>>Highlights: Thriller org, Vampire’s answer, Panel Moderator
10 Jan (Up)
Twenty years ago when I came up with the idea of a three book series with a terrorist attack on America in the third book there was no thriller organization, like Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, etc. Men and women writing thrillers had to do it all on our own. No support or sharing of techniques on how to write thrillers well.
So I’m proud to announce that in the last few weeks I became a charter member of the International Thriller Writers organization. We launched the organization this year. You can see my name on the website at http://www.thrillerwriters.org with some big name authors. It is a great resource for thriller writers.
Only problem is that the by laws have a clause that a member is not considered an author unless they are out of a “commercial” house. This means a large press out of New York or one of the mid-size presses. This turns out to be a bummer for all the authors out of smaller houses. I tried to get the group to take a “guild” approach where there are classes of authors: masters, journeymen, and apprentice. Nope! Won’t do it.
I’m not pleased with this resistance. It is apparent that the group is strongly focused on furthering the established authors’ business contacts with the large presses. From my perspective the group hasn’t yet demonstrated much concerned about encouraging emerging writers. So I’m a bit of an albatross for the group since I’m not from a commercial house. Oops, one of the outsiders slipped in. Anyway, I’m going to use the networking events to introduce my thrillers to editors.
28 Jan (Down, Up)
Still waiting for an answer from the agent I met with in late-October and sent my submittal to the first week in November. She was hot to trot then, even called me. Now the long silence which is the sign of a Vampire agent. No communications after several months typically means NO!. Being my persistent self and believing in business manners I chase her down via her cell phone. “Oh, there was suppose to be a letter sent to you.” Yeah, well it still hasn’t arrived as I post this e-mail to the web. And a simple e-mail could have been sent out once a month by the agent’s office to rejected authors instead of wasting time. But vampires don’t care. It is the way of the industry. Time to try another agent.
30 Jan (Up)
Went to sign up at the West Point alumni website for my 35th class reunion and there are two of my book covers. Yowza! Big Bites for my classmate Frank Monaco. Pulled me right out of my slump.
10 Feb (Up)
Rue Morgue bookstore in Colorado is attending LCC05 and e-mailed my publisher offering to sell GOLD LUST & GOLD FIRE at the conference. Nice to be asked instead of having to ask.
11-15 Feb (Neutral)
I’m judging again this year for another California author organization. I’m still not pleased with self-help books where the author mistakenly thought self-help meant help-themselves and not the reader. I score those books low on that factor.
16 Feb (Up)
My second attempt at getting an agent worked. I went back to a lady that teamed with me on my first book. She reviewed my submittal and the first 50 pages of my Gold Fire manuscript. An angle, my new agent, she wrote me today: “Hi Ed, the package will go out tomorrow to NAL Penguin Group. Excellent job packaging it, good job writing, and the other two books look wonderful. I'm proud of you.”
Support like this is what keeps me at it.
20 Feb (Up)
Learned my books are being carried by http://www.bokpris.com in Sweden. My international fame is growing by leaps and bounds. OK, creeps and crawls. Are there Swedish author groupies?
24-27 Feb (Up)
I’m at Left Coast Crime in El Paso Texas. I got approved, set up, and moderated the first ever thriller panel at LCC. It turns out to be the inaugural ITW panel. A little history being made by me even though I’m not from a “commercial” house. I structured the panel with three best selling authors and two emerging authors (including myself). Michael Newton sat with me. He has 186 novels published and most were best selling books. He is a really down to earth nice guy. He ghost wrote for several years then married his editor. She’s really nice to. I also had Barry Eisler who has the best selling John Rain thriller series. Plus best selling author David Dun agreed to be on the panel. Chester D. Campbell joined us. He has three books out but isn’t from a commercial house. And little old me. It went well and we entertained the crowd. Several attendees came up afterward and said I was an excellent moderator.
Mar 17-19 (Up)
Ironstone Vineyards Gold Jewelry store invited me to sell during their spring flower show. I agreed and drove up to Murphys (an old gold town) in the California gold country. I did excellent again even though a late-spring monsoon drenched the area cutting attendance.
The first night at a friend’s house The Great Creator decided I wasn’t alert enough at 5 a.m. to be writing on Gold Fire. So fifty feet from my bed he sent a lightning bolt. Yikes! Now I know what it looks like inside a nuclear blast. After I peel myself off the ceiling, I run outside and check if there is a fire. The lightning bolt only slashed down the side of a pine tree blasting bark off the tree and leaving a white scar. My hearing gradually returns.
June 3 (Down)
I finally received the rejection package from the vampire agent. It was mailed 31 May. What a slow, unprofessional, costly way of doing business. The agent could have had a staff member send out a monthly reject e-mail and avoided the cost/time for staff to package rejected manuscripts. And why go to the effort six months after receiving the submittal and five months after making the decision to reject?
August 5 (Down)
I’ve been frustrated for several months. I haven’t heard from Penguin and it’s almost six months since they’ve had the package. The long silence is starting to get to me. Plus the vampire agent earlier this year, and dealing with the ITW which is kind of a old-boys club has been grinding on me. So I’ve been slow in sending out my newsletter. But talking to all of you today has been good medicine. I’m out of my funk and will keep plugging away. Gold Fire is turning out to be a very good story. I’m proud of it. Have to finish a few chapters and edit. But it is better than most of the thrillers on the book shelves.
Thanks.
And the adventure continues.
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Please pass this newsletter on to your friends and colleagues. Tell anyone wanting to receive this newsletter to just e-mail me at ed@BooksByMitchell.com However, if this letter is a bother in your hectic lives just reply back that you want to be deleted (or unsubscribe) and I'll immediately drop you from my list.
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P.S. If you want to purchase an autographed copy of any of my books, click here:
http://www.booksbymitchell.com/books.htm
Ed Mitchell, Author of:
GOLD LUST
>>Winner: National Publishers Award for BEST NEW
FICTION in the USA & Canada from a small press
>>Regional Winner: San Francisco Bay Area Independent
Publishers award for BEST MYSTERY THRILLER
GOLD RAID
>>Regional Winner: Sacramento Publisher & Authors Fiction Award for BEST ACTION BOOK.
>>Regional Winner: San Francisco Bay Area Independent
Publishers award for BEST ACTION-ADVENTURE-THRILLER
>>Read Ch-1 of past and soon to be released books
at http://www.booksbymitchell.com
& Sign up for the Author's humorous news letter
Consultant to Emerging Authors
http://www.booksbymitchell.com/consulting.htm
17595 Vierra Canyon Road, #407, Salinas CA 93907
E-mail ed@booksbymitchell.com
831-663-1021
Fax 831-663-5629
Gold Rush 2000 ISBN: 0-9668447-3-4
Gold Lust ISBN 0-9668447-7-7
Gold Raid ISBN 0-9668447-9-3
Copyright Aug 2005
Saturday, August 06, 2005
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