Saxton Reads! & Reviews

Please welcome guest blogger Richard Brawer, author of Beyond Guilty, as he gives us a behind the scenes look at this writing life.


My latest book, “Beyond Guilty” was inspired by a screen play written by my daughter. In her script, the protagonist is an African-American male wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Despite her being a lawyer in the movie industry and the screen play winning a number of awards including $1000.00 from a "Writer's Digest" contest, she was not able to generate interest from her associates in Hollywood. I said to her, "Let me write it as a book with an African-American female protagonist as there are many African-American actresses looking for a meaty, leading role." Thus "Beyond Guilty" was born.

However, in the process the book took on a life of its own and dramatically deviated from the screen play. The only parts that remained the same were that the lead character was wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death; and she escapes death row and fights to prove her innocence. All the fighting, chases, and the ending are entirely different from the screenplay.

One particularly interesting deviation is the theme about nanomedicine.  I like to incorporate something educational in my books.  In my mysteries it is historical vignettes about the Jersey Shore.  In “Beyond Guilty” it’s nanomedicine.  In my daughter’s screenplay, after her character escaped he had to salvage his DNA to prove his innocence.  Seemed like old news to me.  I had recently read an article on nanomedicine so I thought, why not go cutting edge?
 
Nanomedicine is the creation of microscopic, computerized robots that are infused into the blood stream carrying medicine to attack a specific diseased cell.  Unlike current drugs that attack many parts of the body and create additional problems as explained in TV ads, nanomedicine robots home in on infected cells and destroy them, and them alone, with no side effects.  Having no medical experience, I researched nanomedicine on the web.  But did I portray it correctly?  Did I write it so a layperson could follow it?
 
To answer the first question, I started sending e-mails to the authors of the articles I read.  One scientist, Robert A. Freitas Jr. J.D., Senior Research Fellow for the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, was kind enough to edit my references to nanomedicine and has written an essay at the end of the novel explaining how far this research has come and when it will be available.
 
The second question was answered by the reviewers.  “The author’s inclusion of the concept of nanomedicine in the plot is articulate and intriguing...” Von Pittman for The Genreview
Others called it “fascinating”, “interesting”, “engrossing”, “a scientific morality play”.  No one said they could not understand it.
 
I really felt I had written an excellent book so I started querying agents.  Unfortunately the rejection letters started piling up.  Frustrated I began looking at small publishers.  (As you will see below, my past experience made me leery of small publishers.)
 
I wanted one with a good track record, that paid an advance and paid royalties.  I found those qualifications in L & L Dreamspell.  They have been absolutely wonderful.  Although a small press, they run their business like a big New York Publisher.  Yet, even with their contract looking very beneficial I still had a lawyer go over it for reasons you will see below.  (I’m lucky. I have a lawyer in the family who specializes in contracts.)
I am now looking forward to a long relationship with L & L Dreamspell Publishing for novels I will be writing in the future.

How did I get started writing books?
After graduating the University of Florida and a stint in the National Guard, I spent 35 years working in the textile industry.  I lived at the New Jersey shore and commuted an hour and ten minutes to New York City by train.  To fill the time I read the newspaper in the morning and books on the ride home.
 
Always having a vivid imagination, I would occasionally come across a newspaper article that really hit me and would wonder what would happen if?  I didn’t do anything with my wonderment until I retired in 1998.  I did a little sailing and also some gardening but I needed something more to fill my days, especially in the winter.
 
Then one day I read a horrendous article in the newspaper about a father in Boston whose child was born with brain damage and he refused to take him home from the hospital.  He thought he could return the child like a damaged piece of merchandise he bought in a store. (Interesting that this coincides with the child recently returned to Russia.)  The nurses were outraged and their disgust was quoted in the article.  That’s when my imagination took over and I asked myself, “What if the child was misdiagnosed?”
 
With mysteries being my favorite genre I took that thought and began making notes.  The notes turned into paragraphs and the paragraphs into chapters.  Thus my first Murder at the Jersey Shore mystery, “The Nurse Wore Black” was born.

So now I had a book, but what do I do with it?
Being a complete novice, I did the usual things most new writers do, I sent out query letters to agents and received a stack of rejection letters. Lamenting my woes to a friend, he told me about a publisher, Vista Publishing, in Long Branch, New Jersey, the town next to mine that specialized in publishing books about nurses.  Excited, I dropped in cold to their office. Two weeks later they said they wanted to publish my book. Wow!
 When I saw the finished product, the “Wow” factor fell into the depression factor. The cover was not well done and leafing through the book I saw a number of typos.  The publisher had never discussed the cover with me nor did they give me a proof of the typeset book to look over. At the time I didn’t know enough to ask for them. As far as I knew, I thought they would do the editing as well as create a proper cover.  Needless to say, I did not push to sell this book.  It was an embarrassment.
The moral to this story is, be involved in every step of the publishing process. View the cover. Don’t take it for granted. Demand a proof of the book. If you find poor editing, demand the publisher re-edit or pay to have it edited yourself.
My second book in the Murder at the Jersey Shore mystery series, “Diamonds are for Stealing,” was inspired by another newspaper article about phony diamonds.  It was published in 2001 by Hilliard and Harris. With the above experience still weighing heavily on my mind I was totally involved in the publishing process, especially proof reading. Hilliard and Harris did a wonderful job editing and publishing this book. I could not find one mistake. So what happened that made me not want to give them my next book? It was in their contract, which here again was a learning experience.
As with Vista, Hilliard paid all the publication expenses to bring this book to market.  However, they had a clause in their contract that said they do not pay royalties until they recoup their publishing expenses from book sales. Again, my naiveté let me pass right over this clause without a thought. (My daughter was not yet a lawyer.)
As we all know, writing is a dual process, creating the product and publishing the product. Neither party has anything without the other. Since I created the product and would be spending money to promote and sell the book, I felt I was entitled to some return from the sale of book one even if it was only a nickel a copy.  (I did eventually sell enough books to get some royalties.)
Again, the moral: Read your contract carefully and get a lawyer to go over it.  Study every clause. If you don’t like something try and get it changed. If the publisher balks you have two choices, agree or don’t sign, but at least you know exactly what you are getting into.

What do you do with your book after it’s published?
 
In today’s world, even if you are published by a large New York City publisher, unless you are a major author you have to promote your own book.  Thus you need a marketing plan.  There are many ways to promote your worksocial networking sights, twitter, book signings, mass mailings, through your website, joining internet book discussion groups.  You must create your own plan and work at it if you want to sell books.  It’s time consuming but when you see the reviews and get the feedback it is well worth the effort.
 
I would like to talk a little bit about self publishing.
 
I was born in Paterson, New Jersey, America’s first industrial city and the home of the silk industry in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.  I mentioned I worked in the textile industry.  That’s because the family has been in that business since my grandfather started a silk company in 1904.  I wanted to instill in my daughters their heritage so I started interviewing the family in depth and researching Paterson.  The stories were so fascinating I thought they could make a wonderful novel.  But I wrote mysteries and suspense novels.  What did I know about writing historical fiction?  Thus I started reading that genre to see how those books were written.  The result was “Silk Legacy”.
It took me ten years, in between writing the mysteries, to research and write “Silk Legacy”. It is very loosely (and I mean very loosely) based on my paternal grandparents.  My grandmother’s parents did not want her to marry my grandfather because he was an extremely domineering man. (At least that’s what I was told.) Thus the clash between husband and wife is the conflict that runs throughout the book. She gets involved in the suffrage movement and reproductive freedom which angers her husband.  He demands she stay home and take care of “his” house and “his” children. When a strike shuts down the Paterson silk industry, she gives food to the strikers while her husband, a silk industrialist, is fighting the strikers, one of their leaders being his brother.
I tried to get a publisher interested, but again couldn’t land one. To this day I don’t know why.  I’ve read a lot of historical fiction and I knew this was a good book.  Thus, since I was sixty-five, I didn’t want to wait any longer to get the book in print. So I self published it.
As you can see from my web site, “Silk Legacy” has gotten fabulous reviews from everyone who has read it. I have sold it as a tumultuous love story, a family saga and a slice of American history.  Unfortunately the vanity publisher I picked whom, as you can see did a marvelous job on the cover and the layout of the book (I paid to have it professionally edited) has succumbed to this recession and gone out of business.  I now own all the rights and have placed the book on Amazon Kindle for $2.99.  It is also available directly from me. Please see my website, www.silklegacy.com.
Two things you must realize about self publishing, (1) you have to be prepared for everyone in the publishing industry to look down their noses at your work, (2) you have to do 100% o the selling yourself.  But it can be rewarding if you are HONEST with yourself.  If you feel you have a good book and a marketing plan to sell the book, go for it. Don’t let the “mavens” in the publishing trade discourage you.
What is my writing process?
 
First: I form a major premise along with the ending of the story.  In the mysteries it’s naturally "who-done-it."  In the historical fiction novel it’s the resolution between the characters.  And in the suspense novels it’s how to the protagonist gets out of peril.

Second: I create my protagonist and antagonisttheir looks, quirks, and their experiences in life that affect their personalities and the way they react to events.

Third: I create a very rough outline as to how the story will progress from beginning to end.  Note I said very rough as this changes as the story evolves.

Fourth: I try to create a captivating opening chapter such as finding the body in the mysteries, putting the protagonist in jeopardy in the suspense novel and creating the conflict in the historical fiction.

Finally: I write from my opening chapter to the conclusion of the story.  I strive to take the reader on a journey that is never a straight line, but more like the line of a gyrating stock market.  I place red herrings in my mysteries, adventure and jeopardy in my suspense novels and many setbacks in my historical fiction novel.  However, one thing remains constantthere is always CONFLICT.  The most important aspect of a novel is the conflict between the characters.  Without conflict there is no story.
 
How did I learn to write?
 
I read a couple of books and many magazine articles on writing, but in writing as in life, the most important lessons come from doing.   Remember, I said I was an avid reader.  If you want to write, first read, read, read.  If you read books with the idea that you may want to be a writer, then you will consciously start analyzing how the author created his work.  When you start writing, write the type of story you like to read.

Once you begin your writing try to find a critique group that will give you honest feedback on character development, dialogue, voice, plot, conflict and setting.  But don’t automatically take anyone’s critique as gospel.  Remember, it’s your story.  Analyze the critiques to see if they have merit.  Say you have a six person group.  If one person criticizes something then it may or may not be valid.  But if three or four in the group say the same thing about a segment then you should take it under serious consideration.
I hope my experiences will help you with your writing and publishing efforts.
Richard Brawer
www.silklegacy.com