JUNE 2007
“CKR” Diary Post No. 23
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
I'm not quite ready to share the whole *master plan* yet, but I've recently stumbled onto an interesting and possibly major marketing idea for this book. (I'll thank Scott when the time comes--can't take all the credit.) Details will reveal themselves over time, right here on the blog, so get on the P-List to make sure you don't miss anything. I thought I'd give you a heads-up, so you were on the alert. I'm also curious to find out who picks up on it first. This is going to be fun ...
Chapter 17 is sitting on my laptop as we speak, ready and waiting to be crafted. After that, I'll have only 11 chapters remaining in the re-write (which I'll be working on this week and next). June 15 is coming up fast, and it's possible I won't be completely finished by my self-imposed deadline. But the good news is: Whether the manuscript is finished or not, the "package" is still going to Detroit next week. Those of you who know what that means should feel free to start shaking about now. I certainly am. The success of CKR and its auxiliary projects depend on the response and amount of support I get from the man whose name is on the cover. There's no way to tell, of course, how long it will take to get an answer. It could come quickly, or it could take weeks (months). Rest assured, you will be among the first to hear the news when it arrives.
In the meantime, I'm busy scheduling and preparing for my "book tour" (damn, that sounds funny!) to promote IB. I'm also scurrying to get review copies to reviewers, press releases to newspapers, event invitations to guests, and letters to select book stores, begging them to put the book on their shelves. It's a frustrating task to get a book into stores, especially when your publisher is small and marketing is 99.9% in the hands of the author. There are over 2,000 new books a month that booksellers have to choose from when purchasing stock. If they think the book will sell, they'll buy a few copies. If they've never heard of you (or your book or your blog or your MySpace profile), you're not even a blip on their radar screen.
See why I'm so eager for support from Detroit?
But I'm not discouraged, by any means. Life is good. Better than good, really. And it gets a little better every day. I have YOU to thank for a big portion of that, so I hope you know how much you're appreciated. I'm not a household name (yet), but I'm a whole lot closer to it today than I was a year ago. Without you, I'd still be sitting home at my computer, working in a vacuum, and wondering what the hell to do with myself.
You ALL continue to rock.
“CKR” Diary Post No. 24
Friday, June 15, 2007
Not since the early days, when the idea for this book wouldn't let me sleep, have I felt a fire under my ass quite like this one. But sending material to Detroit can do that, I suppose. And, now that it's done, I'll tell you more about it.
The package that went to Rock's manager contained a letter, a brief (1-page) synopsis of CKR, the first three chapters of the manuscript, selected excerpts from this Diary, the first four installments of "GeTtiNg iT" (yes, there are 4--I'm posting one immediately after I post this), and an audio recording of Chapter 6 (aka the strip club scene), that a very dear friend (Josh) recorded for me. I also tossed in my first two issues of CLOSER magazine and a copy of my novel, just so they know I'm legit and not a psycho groupie. (Okay, maybe a little, but we all know the "legit" part's true.)
The whole kit and kaboodle will go out today or Monday--FedEx--from an attorney, not me, which I'm hoping will increase the odds of making contact. We're asking for permission to use Rock's name in the title and to quote lyrics in one of the chapters. But, more importantly, we'd like to discuss collaboration; without it, I simply don't have the contacts to take CKR where it needs to go.
So, the balls are rolling! And I'm under the gun to polish-off the remaining 10 chapters. (Chapter 19 is calling me as we speak.) I have NO idea how long it will take to get an answer, if we get one at all, but the possibility exists that someone could request the entire manuscript as early as next week. Of course, I'll be out of town and unable to write this weekend, just to make sure the PRESSURE's really on.
Don't you hate when that happens?
“CKR” Diary Post No. 25, or Are You “GeTtiNg iT”?
Monday, June 25, 2007
First a couple updates, then I'll let a major cat out of the bag...
* God willing and the creeks don't rise, I'm hoping CKR will be finished this week....well, the first "final" draft of the manuscript, anyway. I'm down to nine (that's 9!) chapters in the re-write. Some of them are in need of major overhauls, but the basic story is there, so it's a matter of expanding and polishing. Wish me luck!
* We haven't heard anything, yet, about the "package" that was sent last week. But I expect it will take some time. If we haven't gotten a response after a few weeks, I'll have Tom follow-up. (You know I'll keep you posted.)
Now, for the "cat" ...
Several of you have been following both the CKR Diaries and the new blog series, GeTtiNg iT. I've been intentionally vague with Gi (say the letters, “gee-eye”), but, out of curiosity, I was wondering if any of you had noticed the similarities? And, yes, there are most definitely similarities.
With yesterday's post of GI-5, I feel it's probably a good time to let you in on the secret that the three main characters in Chasing Kid Rock and GeTtiNg iT are the same. I'm screwing a bit with the space-time continuum, having placed the Ted, Alex, and Jimmy of 20-ish years ago into present-day Florida, but the exercise is doing exactly what I'd hoped it would: Give me, as the writer, a more intimate glimpse into the thought processes of the characters.
In CKR, Ted is a 40-year-old talk radio program writer/producer/on-air personality who's faced with divorce. In Gi, he's in his 20s and struggling with the dating scene. While writing the novel, I'm constantly asking myself questions about Ted and his friends, Alex and Jimmy, and their relationships--both with "outsiders" and one another. With Gi, I have the ability to dive into each one of the characters' heads, individually, to study their motivations. I can't do that in CKR, because the entire novel is told from Ted's point of view. Going about it the way I am, with weekly posts to the blog, I'm creating a full-length backstory--it's like writing the prequel to CKR, "live" and "off the cuff," one blog post at a time.
The current plan is to carry on with Gi through February, maybe March. I have a pretty good idea of where it's going, and how it will end, but I'm only traveling with a rough outline. To make things even more interesting (i.e., complicated for me), I'm also tying some of the storylines in with pieces I write for CLOSER magazine's "SexEd" column. The next issue contains my third article, "The Lost Art of Seduction." Once it's distributed and available to the public, I'm planning a seduction scene that oughtta get ALL of us cranked up.
So that's what I'm doing these days--working hard to suck you in. Books neither write themselves nor promote themselves, and both present their own sets of challenges. But sometimes you can kill two (or three or four) birds with one stone. Or, I suppose I should say, one keyboard.
JULY, AUGUST, and SEPTEMBER 2007
No entries were posted these months.
(to be continued....)
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