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From Idea to Bookshelf:
How three authors wrote and published their first books
Tips from remarks by three speakers at
the Writers Life 2011 program, co-sponsored by the National Writers
Union and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.
(notes by Barbara Beckwith)
Saloma Miller Furlong's memoir, Why I Left the Amish
(Michigan State University Press), was published after 16 years of
work. Growing up in an isolated society and in a large family, Furlong
often wondered why they had no Christmas trees, no musical instruments.
Her schooling was deemed finished at 8th grade, but six years later,
she made her way from Ohio to Vermont, where she continued her
education and got a GED (she now has a college degree, as well). She
baked and quilted for a living four days a week, and wrote for three.
She would go to bed thinking about what she wanted to write, and the
next day, it was all there to put down on paper. She opted for a
chronological structure to her memoir and provided the back story in
between scenes from her father’s funeral. She had no agent to help her
sell this first book, but the day a publisher accepted the manuscript,
a second interested publisher contacted her. She intends to find an
agent who has experience with selling movie rights for her next book.
When it came time to review the contract, the NWU provided invaluable
assistance. Because her book is published by a university press, the
issue of whether her book can be released for electronic format has not
come up.
January Gilil ONeil's first poetry book, Underlife
(Cavankerry Press), was a finalist for both the ForeWord Reviews Book
of the Year and the 2010 Paterson Poetry Prize. After college,
marriage, and two babies, she felt unsettled and began to write. She
found her community online. She posted links to her poetry blog on
various websites and was encouraged by the positive commentary. She
finally felt she had enough for a manuscript but stayed away from
publishers who ask you to pay to publish your content, known as “open
submission.” She promotes her own work by finding places to speak in
the community, and continues to publish online via her blog,
Poetmom.blogspot.com. Persistence is her greatest asset, as she enjoys
pulling back from the writing to enjoy life. Poetry publishing is
vastly different than the fiction and nonfiction publishing genre, says
O'Neil, as most publishers of poetry do not work with agents, and the
work rarely sells blockbuster copies. Poetry does not translate well to
Kindle or other electronic formats because the look on the page does
not carry over to the e-reader format.
Jerald Walker, author of Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race Rebellion, and Redemption
(Bantam), introduced himself frankly as a former juvenile delinquent in
Chicago’s South Side born to blind parents who belonged to a doomsday
cult. He dropped out of school but eventually got his GED, then ‘on a
whim’ enrolled in a community college in his early 20s. He met a
writing teacher who believed in him, and helped get him enrolled at
Iowa State University. He eventually ended up in the Iowa Writers
Workshop. He said “having a lot of nerve” helped propel him. He is
currently an associate professor of creative writing at Emerson
College. His lucky break happened when a man saw one of his essays, and
introduced him to an influential agent, who sold the manuscript,
“Street Shadows,” before it was written. Meanwhile, his mentor told him
he had to learn to control his imagination if he was going to write
memoir. He found his voice writing nonfiction. He developed the
structure of his book himself, to show the contrast between his old
delinquent life and his academic one. His contract required that
his book be available on Kindle. To write memoir he suggested you “see
life as an outside observer and just see the facts.” He writes from 6
to 9 am and then promptly stops, no matter where he’s at.
Charles Coe, who moderated the panel, said that when it comes to
writing memoir, authors should strive to create a firewall between
themselves and the materials. “Don’t let yourself be consumed by the
material, be in service to it.” Maintaining a blog and booking your own
speaking appearances will prove you are an enthusiastic promoter of
your work, and will make you appealing to publishers.
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