Frank S. Joseph's Notes on the June '09 American Independent Writers Conference

Novelist Frank S. Joseph recently shared with his e-mail list his notes on the excellent June '09 American Independent Writers Conference, and with his permission, I herewith share them with you:

Dear Writer List:

Following is from my notes of the American Independent Writers annual meeting last Saturday 6/13 in D.C.:

FICTION AGENTS ROUNDTABLE
Panelists: Four fiction agents

You must sell 100,000 copies in one week to break into national best-seller lists.

Panelists agreed on a number: 75% of projects they represent get sold (eventually).

Blog by Chuck Sambuchino was mentioned approvingly, "Guide to Literary Agents"

A self-published book must sell 5,000 copies to get an agent's attention, panelists agree.


NON-FICTION AGENTS ROUNDTABLE
Panelists: Four nonfiction agents

What's Selling Now:
* Barnes & Noble's shelf categories, and Amazon's ways of characterizing books, have had a big impact on editors in terms of genres they are looking for

* So books that cross or combine genres are more challenging to sell

* "Practical" self-help categories are selling well -- children's, cooking, health, gardening, home, "retro" subjects related to the down economy

* A great "platform" is great to have (viz., Harvard Medical School); 'Get famous first, then write your book'

* For major publishers, 20-30,000 copies is a viable hardcover project; for university presses, 15,000 copies.

* Big sales of your first book are crucial for your subsequent career as an author.


KEYNOTE SPEECH, KEITH DONAHUE, AUTHOR, 'THE STOLEN CHILD'
(This was a terrific, inspiring address -- KD is one great speaker)

* Be a good liar

* Learn how to read

* Workshop or don't as you prefer ("you can't be taught to be a writer" -- you just have to practice, fail, then "fail better")

* Write what you want to write; write for love; write for yourself

* "Literature is an endless source of courage and confirmation"

* Don't be afraid

* Be stubborn, persistent; "take no for an answer with dignity and grace"

* Publishers Marketplace is now available online for a fee -- searchable database

* Poem: "Expect everything, and anything is nothing/Expect nothing, and anything is everything"

* Pay attention to publishing as a business

* A great deal depends on nexus/circumstance/chance

* Find a champion; a VP of Amazon fell in love with "The Stolen Child" and made the novel a success before it was ever published

* "In the end, nobody in the publishing business knows how to do this, especially in fiction"

* Be willing to(self) promote your book

* "Remember how and why you are a storyteller"

-- Frank S. Joseph

P.S. I also posted some notes about the "Other Times, Other Places" AIW conference panel I moderated with novelists Wayne Karlin, Olga Grushin, and Frederick Reuss. More anon.

Olga Grushin, Wayne Karlin, Frederick Reuss

How time zooms. I've been meaning to post something about the panel, "Other Places, Other Times: The Special Challenges of Writing and Publishing Historical and International Fiction," which I moderated (and participated on) at the American Independent Writers Conference in Washington DC last month. The other three panelists were novelists Olga Grushin, Wayne Karlin and Frederick Reuss. These three are not only among the most outstanding writers in the Washington DC area, but the entire country, so it was a priviledge indeed to hear them speak.

Herewith, a few notes:

Olga Grushin. The Russian-born author of The Dream Life of Sukhanov, a first novel that garnered scads of rave reviews, grew up in a radically different mileu than most American writers: in Moscow and Prague and surrounded by artists. In the panel, Grushin spoke of the challenges of not only imagining the point of view of a middle-aged man, but writing in English, which is her second language. She said, "I often find myself thinking of a saying of Charlemagne: 'to know another language is to have a second soul.'" One thing she said that especially intrigued me: "I don't let myself near contemporary fiction when I am writing." Check out Olga Grushin's bio and her fascinating interview with Library Journal.

Wayne Karlin. I met Karlin a few years ago in the strangest place--- a casino at Atlantic City. But no, not gambling; we were both signing books at a regional booksellers conference. I took home his novel The Wished-For Country, a richly poetic vision of mid-seventeenth century Maryland, and I've been a big fan of his ever since. I'll quote Richard Bausch, who says it best:

"In this tragically forgetful country, this country whose own history--- even the history told by the winners and the public figures--- is mostly lost, it has fallen to its best novelists to tell the whole, real story, and to make it indelible. Thatis the province of Truth, finally--- Truth, the old, abused word, one Pontius Pilate had so much trouble with--- and it is what divides all the writers worth reading from those who are not worth reading. Wayne Karlin is one of the truth-tellers. You read him and your spirit is enlarged, and you want immediately to re-read him, for savoring. Line by line, he is lyrical, precise, deeply insightful, and breathtakingly vivid. he has long been among the best writers we have in this country--- in fact, I believe he is among the best writers we have ever had. And this amazing book is moving, utterly involving, and finally unforgettable."

In the panel Karlin talked about the nature of the novel, how it is "a mirror we holdup to ourselves." He went on: "writers, even when they are creating situations of the utmost fanstasy mine their lives for what they've learned, what they've experienced... I believe as Conrad did, that a writer's main job is to give the reader surrogate experiences."

Indeed: "a vivid dream," to use John Gardner's term. Or a "virtual reality."

Read an excerpt from The Wished-For Country here.

Karlin is also the author several other novels, including Marble Mountain and Prisoners. He is also a translator of Vietnamese and has edited anthologies of Vietnamese writing, and his latest book, a work of nonfiction forthcoming in September 2009, is Wandering Souls, about an American soldier who, long after the war, returns to Vietnam.


Frederick Reuss recently published Mohr, a novel inspired by the true story of his uncle, a German writer and playwright well-known before the Nazi persecutions. From the publisher's catalog copy:

With the sort of enthralling narrative step that always marks his work, Reuss allows their story to rise from a cache of photographs he uncovered in Germany—photographs from the 1920s and ’30s of the exiled Jewish playwright and novelist Max Mohr; Käthe, the beautiful wife he left behind; and Eva, their daughter, who would live through it all but would never really understand what had happened.

The interplay between Reuss’s revealing prose and the real faces in nearly 50 photographs offers a reading experience that may be unprecedented in novels...

In the panel Reuss said, "Paradoxically, I feel that in creating Max and Käthe and Eva Mohr as fictional characters, I have come to know them more intimately that if I had stuck to facts."

Read this profile of Reuss and Mohr in the Washington Post; Colleen Mondor's review in Bookslut; and about his earlier novels, Henry of Atlantic City, Horace Afoot, and The Wasties, here.

More anon.

American Independent Writers: The Summer Membership Drive

For anyone (especially but not necessarily) in the Washington DC area who is serious about their writing, whether it be fiction, speechwriting, journalism, or freelancing of all stripes, here's a great offer: If you join American Independent Writers (previously Washington Independent Writers) in July or August, they'll waive the $45 initiation fee. I've been a member for several years now and highly recommend it. Read more about AIW and its many benefits here.

P.S. I'll be speaking at AIW's July 16 "PubSpeak" about The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire. And ASAP, I'll be posting something here on this blog about the AIW conference in June, and the amazing panel I moderated, which featured novelists Frederick Reuss, Wayne Karlin, and Olga Grushin.