[split] Books and Writing

[AnthroHeart]

Mod note: 8 posts were split into this new thread

That sounds like quite the undertaking, must have been fun. I'll keep an eye out! :-)

Even after having it edited and revised over ten times by editors and myself when I ran the novel through Grammarly software, it found over 3000+ errors that none of us caught.
So it's been an exciting time.

[YinYang]

Yeah, errors will always sneak through, I have spotted mistakes in Booker Prize winners!

I think nothing makes us humans as happy as when we create!

[AnthroHeart]

Yeah, errors will always sneak through, I have spotted mistakes in Booker Prize winners!

I think nothing makes us humans as happy as when we create!

That's the first I've heard of the Booker Prize. Can you only submit novels published in the same year? I don't see their rules.

I'm going to use some marketers with a few thousand dollar budget.

[YinYang]

I have no idea how Booker Prize entries work, I just know that it is arguably one of the most prestigious accolades for any novelist, even just being nominated is huge. You can say it's the Oscars of the book world! You can't go wrong with any book shortlisted for the Booker Prize... I'll never forget when I read A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, I cried for 3 days after finishing it. Since then I always seek out Indian authors.

What kind of a marketing campaign do you have in mind?

[AnthroHeart]

I'm going to see about using freelancer.com where I will have a representative that hooks me up with a bunch of people who will bid on the project. That's what I used for the other things I've done so far. They should have marketing teams or individuals. I want to get heavily into social media, and build the website+forum.

Then advertise and such. It's still too early to tell what I'm going to do.

[YinYang]

Well I hope it turns out the way you wish! I just checked out the 2017 winner of the Booker Prize, and it's about Abraham Lincoln! And experimental first novel...

Here's what the author said about writing the book:

Many years ago, during a visit to Washington DC, my wife's cousin pointed out to us a crypt on a hill and mentioned that, in 1862, while Abraham Lincoln was president, his beloved son, Willie, died, and was temporarily interred in that crypt, and that the grief-stricken Lincoln had, according to the newspapers of the day, entered the crypt "on several occasions" to hold the boy's body. An image spontaneously leapt into my mind – a melding of the Lincoln Memorial and the Pietà. I carried that image around for the next 20-odd years, too scared to try something that seemed so profound, and then finally, in 2012, noticing that I wasn't getting any younger, not wanting to be the guy whose own gravestone would read "Afraid to Embark on Scary Artistic Project He Desperately Longed to Attempt", decided to take a run at it, in exploratory fashion, no commitments. My novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, is the result of that attempt.

Or as a friend of mine always says "it's better to regret something you HAVE done than something you haven't" Lol!

[AnthroHeart]

I did try submitting for the Pulitzer back in 2004, but it didn't go anywhere there. Probably because of the many mistakes. Or there were just more interesting things.

If my book does well, I'm already planning a trilogy.

[YinYang]

Well, nothing wrong with shooting for the stars! Don't be too dismayed with these judges, they favour a very particular genre, and it's not sci-fi. I checked to see if there are any book awards for sci-fi specifically, and it looks like the Nebula and Hugo Awards.

Sometimes I wonder if I haven't found more spiritual wisdom in fiction... I personally think you should never write "for other people", I think an author goes into a very specific place, and it's a very vulnerable place, usually a place with deep wounds. The Boof Thief was another one of those truly unforgettable books. The celebrities in my world are authors, I will walk past Brad Pitt in the street without batting an eyelid, but put me in a room with an author I admire, whole nother story...lol!

I met André P. Brink at a book signing one day, and I wanted to say so many things when I finally reached him, and all I could say was "thank you..." His lover, Ingrid Jonker committed suicide by walking into the sea in 1965, and now after his death, their love letters have been published

This is usually me:

[Coordinate_Apotheosis]

Oh the dreams of being an admired author.  Were I only able to tell a story interestingly.

[YinYang]

Oh the dreams of being an admired author.  Were I only able to tell a story interestingly.

Oh but everyone has a story to tell, C_A, you just have to find a way to go into 'that place' I mentioned earlier. I actually think you have quite a way with words.

[YinYang]

I am reminded of how Carla laid herself bare in her writing, that's the kind of vulnerability I'm taking about. You relinquish your privacy as an author, you relinquish your anonymity. You open the door to others, and it's a heroic act I think, especially in the memoir genre, which was essentially Carla's genre. That takes courage.