Devoted to publishing, publishers and to those who craft the written word

“That handwriting—careful, shaky, spiky, every letter distinct, straight up and down, like it took hours to etch, and that was with her good hand. The poem was about watching the stars fall from the back of a pickup truck, hitchhiking by the constellations. You could feel every bit of it: the piney smell of the Oregon trees, the jolt of the rocks in the road."

That’s a gorgeous bit of prose from Janice Erlbaum’s memoir, Have You Found Her. In that passage, Erlbaum reflects on the writings of a teenaged runaway that she befriended in New York City.

The pair bond over writing—two struggling authors trying to make sense of the world—and I think their friendship will be familiar to most of our readers. Today, Erlbaum explains the ups and downs of negotiating her two book deals.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
You've now published two books. Which mistakes did you avoid the second time around? More specifically, could you describe the process of publishing this memoir--how did the looking for an agent/publisher process change the second time around?

Janice Erlbaum:
Again, I’m a lucky bastard, because I sold Girlbomb in June of 2004 as part of a two-book deal. Continue reading...

 

Arielle Zibrak, the editor who acquired me, couldn’t afford to spend a lot on the book, but she was willing to commit to two books rather than just the one, so that made my decision for me – I knew I’d much rather have a two-book deal with a major publishing house than a few more dollars in my pocket up front.

The problem was that I didn’t have a second book to sell. But I quickly cooked up a proposal for a novel, and Arielle accepted it, and then I was set for the next two years, financially and career-wise – no need to shop for another publisher (and I’d never leave my wonderful agent, Alice Martell).

Arielle resigned from Random House while Girlbomb was still in production, but I was lucky enough to wind up under the editorial wing of the brilliant and sensitive Bruce Tracy (cue angels singing), who guided me through the publication of Girlbomb and the writing and editing of Have You Found Her. And I will never, ever leave Bruce, for as long as he’ll keep me.