The Writing Center

As we all know, author readings and book signings aren’t just for bookstores anymore. And an article in today’s New York Times shows that for some popular authors, casinos have become the new bookstores.

I’m not at all surprised by this … I had never been to the “old Vegas” of $19 hotel rooms, $5 buffets, and not much else to do but gamble (and engage in other activities that inspired the saying “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”). But the newly polished Vegas has a lot more to offer. You can still find cheap hotels and good deals off the Strip — but it’s also very easy to forgo gambling in favor of fine dining, fine drinking, shopping, shows, and now … book readings and signings.

From Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in the east to Mandalay Bay in the west, casinos are welcoming authors. The article points out that publishers see these venues as a better fit for popular writers than literary writers (Robin Cook, Augusten Burroughs, and Erica Jong are among the writers to speak at casinos this year) — but judging by the crowds a casino can draw (the Times reports that mystery writer Janet Evanovich sold 1,125 copies of her new book at Foxwoods, setting a record for sales of a single title in one day), I’m guessing that publishers and writers will begin to open their minds to it.

I, for one, would love to see a little culture in the casinos. And it sounds as if many writers are already embracing the idea. Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean, among other books, told the Times that she didn’t have a problem with her appearance at Mandalay Bay, even if she did have to read over the sound of slot machines. More important, she sold books.

Today’s Los Angeles Times features an article about Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way and The Vein of Gold, among others. Cameron has just published a memoir about her life’s struggles, from the breakup of her marriages to her recovery from drug and alcohol addiction to her nervous breakdowns. She has never before revealed the extent of her struggles, and those familiar with her creativity books may not realize, as Gina Piccalo of the Times points out, that back in the 1970s, Cameron “was best known as the lush whom Martin Scorsese left for Liza Minnelli, the hotshot writer who swore like a sailor and matched Hunter S. Thompson drink-for-drink.”

But since the publication of The Artist’s Way in 1992, Cameron has been the one people turn to for guidance. I first read the book shortly after it was published — it was wildly popular among creative types in New York, where I lived then. Artist’s Way groups met regularly, working through the twelve-week creativity program together, and individuals exhorted one another to read the book — nearly everyone who recommended it to me said, “It changed my life.” I have to admit it changed mine, too. It was in the mid 1990s that I began writing fiction, and I published my first short story a couple years later. I still recommend it to students and fellow writers. And yes, I still do morning pages (most of the time).

Cameron told the Times that she wrote her memoir, Floor Sample, to let readers know of the struggles she had to overcome to become who she is today; she doesn’t want it to look as if it’s too easy. From the few examples revealed in this article, it sounds as if this book will accomplish that. I’m looking forward to reading it … but first, I might pick up The Artist’s Way again.

I’m very happy to introduce and welcome Amy E. Dean, who is partnering with Metro Writing as an editor. I first met Amy in Boston about eight years ago, where I recognized her immediately from her author photo — I’d previously worked at Penguin Putnam, whose imprint Berkley Books had published Amy’s book Caring for the Family Soul.

As we worked together at Boston University, I learned that Amy is as fine an editor as she is a writer. I used her memoir to teach the narrative writing unit of my communication writing class at BU, and she was an enthusiastic and generous guest lecturer for my students for several years. She is an ideal editor for so many projects that come to us at Metro Writing — she has written both memoir and other nonfiction books as well as several novels, and she’s been an editor for myraid publications and projects throughout her career.

Click here to read more about Amy. And if you have an editing project that you think would be a perfect fit, send us an e-mail at writing@metrowriting.com, or call us at 760-208-1913, and we’ll put you in touch.

Yesterday, in conjunction with New York City’s Shakespeare in the Park, Google launched its Shakespeare site, where you can view Shakespeare’s complete works online. Reading Shakespeare while sitting in front of a computer on a summer’s day may not be everyone’s idea of “beach reading” — but it’s good to see these works so accessible. While I think it’s probably more fun to browse through a hard copy of a book, one big plus about this site is that if you’re looking for a famous quote or passage in a certain play, a search will bring it to you within seconds.

Another site, www.gutenberg.org, also offers free books — again, these books are free because their copyrights have expired in the United States. (The site does post some books, with permission, that are still under copyright and gives instructions for their legal use.) But you can download the works of such authors as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, James Fenimore Cooper, and Virgil. The only problem with this is that you’ll have to print them out to take them to the beach, or wait until after beach season to buy a Sony Reader that you can carry around with you.

Curling up with Virgil’s Aeneid on a Sony Reader may not appeal to everyone. For those who prefer something a little lighter, or prefer their pages in the paper version, we’ve still got bookstores and libraries. But it is fun to see books appearing in newer formats — and especially to see books in the public domain becoming ever more accessible. Of course, publishers will still be able to sell their own copies of the classics (for most of us there’s still no replacement for a physical book) and performances of Shakespeare will always be an experience that goes beyond the page. Yet it’s good to see options out there — the Sony Reader, for example, offers a larger type size than most books (especially reprints of the classics) — and there’s no downside to (legally) making it easier for people to search for and find the books they want.

Sony has delayed the launch of the Sony Reader until “Late Summer 2006.”

People are speculating that the reason for the delay isn’t the device itself but the “Connect” software and Web site that will allow people to purchase books in much the same way that the iTunes software works with the iPod.

In the meantime, Sony has competition. Enter the iRex, developed by Philips.

This device is also due for a sometime-this-summer launch, though it will only be available to business customers. Regular folks like me will have to wait until September.

There’s an interesting piece by Sheelah Kolhatkar in today’s New York Observer about “platforms” (“If You Build It, They Will Come—Hot in Publishing: Platforms!”). The article is all about how it’s not just the writing anymore that endears authors to publishers — it’s the author’s “platform,” i.e., the place from which the author can sell a great many copies of his or her book.

What, exactly, is a platform? The article offers an example most of us can understand: Oprah. She is not only a platform for herself and for anything she wishes to promote, but she provides a platform for any writer fortunate enough to get her attention.

But what about those writers who don’t get Oprah’s attention — and especially those “old school” writers who are more interested in their writing than in their own publicity? As the article makes (painfully) clear, this is no longer a luxury writers have. In today’s competitive market, publishers are looking for even more.

The article offers a couple of ideas — blogs, MySpace — as ways for authors to develop their platforms. It also notes that having a well-written book is a platform in and of itself. But even the best books out there don’t sell magically by themselves, and while I don’t think authors need to worry about platforms until their books are finished and are the best they can be, it can’t hurt to give a little thought to marketing, whether at the agent, publisher, or publicity stage of the process.

Word of mouth remains among the best ways to sell anything — so much so that a company called BzzAgent uses this as its business model: it hires “bzz agents” to spread the word about new products from chicken sausage to jeans (and, of course, books). The good news is that you don’t need to hire anyone to do this for you; we all know enough people to start enlisting our own groups of “agents” — and the “buzz” our friends and family create is bound to be more authentic. So think of who you know, where they live, what resources they have, and how they might be able to help.

Of course, you can’t depend solely on your connections; you’ll also need to put yourself out there. Even if your publisher doesn’t offer you a ten-city book tour, create your own. These days, most writers do just that: pack up the car, map out cheap hotels, and offer readings and signings wherever they can. And many of them have had wonderful success because they go beyond bookstores to libraries, schools, businesses, and any other place they might find an audience. You never know where your readers may be.

A great many writers today have their own web sites (you might want to register your name, and/or the title of your book, sooner than later), and this too can be a good platform. And whether you’ve written a novel or a memoir, a cookbook or a computer book, there are people and organizations out there that will be thrilled to hear from you. You just need to find them.

This may sound like a lot of work, but, as the Observer article also points out, poor sales of one book can harm your chances of ever publishing another one. So isn’t it worthwhile to go the extra mile from the very beginning? Then you’ll no longer have to worry about finding a platform — you’ll already have one.