SO YOU WANT TO WRITE, PUBLISH, and MARKET YOUR MEMOIR - POST # 8

THE ODYSSEY of my ODYSSEY about ODYSSEY

                           POST #8

Persistence may win the day after all.

The Second Time Around

Voila! My original agent liked what I have done with Odyssey. She said it was "important" but too dense. She suggested she take about 30 pages with her to Paris and show an editor colleague to see if she can make it flow a bit better.

Uncertain what this would mean I figured why not as I can always say no. She called upon her return and told me that she decided not to give it to the editor. Instead, she said, she wanted to work with me.

She suggested that I go over chapter one and add some dialogue, and additional description. She would do the same and then we would compare notes.

She also added that we should work on two chapters (one and four) and submit them.

To say the least her comments were encouraging - to say the least. 

VERY CAREFUL EDITING

That night I worked for 4 hours carefully going over line by line, word by word ... adding dialogue, making the bridges flow, cutting the stuff that seemed too dense and the like.

I called my agent the next day to tell her I had done as much as I was able to at the moment. She said she would be ready to get together again in about two weeks.

WHAT ELSE TO DO

One of the lessons learned in my research is that even if the book gets published by a large company {let's shoot for Random House again} it is still largely up to the author to market his/her work.

So I decided to research the internet and see how many sources could I come up with that were potential markets for Odyssey. Among the key words I googled were:

• Substance Abuse Conventions
• Addiction and Recovery Associations
• Therapeutic Communities
• Exposing Cults
• Survivors of Bad Psychotherapy
• Addiction Book Stores
• Radio and TV Programs re Addiction, and Recovery
• Survivor Sites
• Alternative Schools and Addiction
• Support Groups
• Additional

I worked for hours and hours and compiled a list of 35 pages with about 40 URLS on each page.

A MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION

It must be readily apparent that this very long pregnancy has a real possibility of being born. I try my best to keep grounded and expect nothing. But the point between fantasy and reality seems to be notably tipping to the side of reality.

ADDICTION, RECOVERY, and MEMOIRS are ALL in the AIR

Finally I have lived long enough to be in the main stream. Additionally it appears to me that half the world is addicted to some substance and the other half are looking to be cured.

Additionally, the New York Times keeps on printing reviews of yet another memoir on addiction,  and recovery. Just two days ago I read another review of a memoir called CUPCAKE - a female version of A Million Little Pieces -  except the author - once a junkie but now a lawyer - found salvation in embracing the Twelve Steps. However, the reviewer was not exactly impressed with the author's account of her struggles. The reviewer's impression of the author's recovery was that she made it sound as if rehabilitation was a piece of cake.

I truly hope the trend continues ...

SELF GUIDANCE

FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS and STEADY as SHE GOES are the two orders of the day. I am totally committed to having my book published. And this time if we collect the same 20 rejections that I got during the twenty five years of trying to connect I will self publish.

Whatever else that can be said about this Odyssey about writing, publishing and marketing my Odyssey it has been and continues to be one hell of a trip.