Category Archives: Writing

Nothing in life is fair, and here’s a perfect example. One day you say to yourself, “Self, let’s write a novel.” Self: “You gotta be kidding me.” You: “I’m serious. And because we’re one and the same, get used to it.” So you both do that, and after many hours of bleeding at your computer, you finally complete the novel. Then after a bunch of revisions, the manuscript reaches “submission” quality. Time to send out those queries, right? Not so fast, says “The Industry.” Manuscripts aren’t really submission-ready until they’ve been properly formatted. But that’s not a problem, because the … Continue reading →

My brother and I have a tradition, of sorts, in which prior to beginning any project we call the other and suggest that he begin one as well. Our purpose is to increase the odds that at least one of us will complete what we started without burning down the house, or causing our computer to self-destruct, or (and here’s one of my favorites), open a gadget up with the intention of finding out why it’s not working without realizing something inside is spring-loaded. Sproing! Five tiny pieces fly out in five different directions and become forever lost in the … Continue reading →

Support: a verb meaning to give assistance, comfort, emotional help, approve of and encourage. Group: a noun meaning a number of people who work together or share certain beliefs. Writers’ support group: the people who seem to delight in pouncing with the fervor of Attila the Hun on any little thing another writer does that they find lacking. 🙂 Seriously, writers band together a lot, probably because we all share with Ernest Hemingway the opinion that writing is really easy. All you have to do is sit down at a typewriter (computer), open up a vein, and bleed. My previous … Continue reading →

After writing this morning’s post on the subject of ebook covers I couldn’t resist the temptation to try something. I began about 9:00 AM, it’s now 5:00 in the afternoon, and although the air around my writing desk is still blue with the less-than-polite language I used while insulting Adobe Photoshop Element 8’s parentage, I managed to get a “first draft” cover image done without throwing my computer through the front window. The manuscript is in 13th draft (with countless unnumbered revisions along the way), so I fully expect there to be many more attempts at a cover before I … Continue reading →

Okay, so here I am trying to balance my time around four parallel efforts: maintain the blog, continue submitting my novel to agents, dust off two other manuscripts, and research “ebooking” under the assumption that I’ll end up working my way through a list of 157 possible agents either without being offered representation or an acceptable publishing contract. In yesterday’s post I addressed (superficially, because I haven’t begun as yet) the task of formatting my novel into an ebook. I can report a little progress in deciding that with more time than discretionary income to invest in this project, I’m … Continue reading →

I participate in two writers’ groups, the smaller of which we refer to by the extremely inventive and original name of “Little Group,” or “El Gee.” Last evening El Gee met to discuss the topic of “new” as opposed to “legacy” publishing. I’ve compiled a research document with information mined from the Internet, and we used it to help guide the discussion. This morning I woke up with the irresistible desire to revise and extend my remarks in what a good friend and fellow writer has referred to as The Gospel According to Tosh. There’s both a humorous and somewhat … Continue reading →

A previous Writer’s Desk logbook post on March 22, 2011, titled “Query War Update – ‘You’ve Got Mail!’” listed the ten steps on what I referred to as “the ladder to publication.” I was referring to the “legacy” publishing industry, in which agents serve as the gatekeepers to the “big six” publishing houses. That’s been my goal since typing the first word of my first novel into a Word document on my first laptop, a Mac PowerBook. And at that moment in March, my journey toward becoming a published author had just planted both feet on the sixth step by … Continue reading →

At the regularly scheduled meeting of the Novel-In-Progress group of Austin, Texas yesterday, our fearless leader Deanna Roy, who misses nothing when it comes to what’s going on out there in the publishing industry, mentioned the term “disposable pseudonym.” I’d never heard it, and I’m not sure anyone else in the room had either. In the world of “new” publishing, in which the literary agent/publisher “gatekeeper” monopoly no longer has exclusive control of the printing and distribution of what they think is fit to print, writers can now connect with readers directly. This metamorphosis is both good and bad news. … Continue reading →

Two previous posts in the Writer’s Desk logbook (“Fiction After 50 and Ebooks?” on April 15, 2011, and “Ebooks in the News” on April 21) have addressed the current turmoil in the publishing industry. This post will recap a bit and expand on the topic. To begin a roundtable meeting of the Novel-In-Progress Group of Austin last April 10th, our fearless moderator Deanna Roy (standing at the head of the table in the painting above) gave a short summary of recent events to introduce the “icebreaker” question, which asked each of us if we would consider self-publishing our novels. One … Continue reading →

As of yesterday morning, June 8, 2011, I’d sent out 37 queries and received 15 form rejections (plus 3 “closed/no responses” for a total of 18), 2 requests for partial manuscripts, and 2 requests for fulls. The rest are just “out there.” Then later that day I received my first request for a full as a result of one of the partials: Dear Mr. McIntosh, I just wanted to give you an update on your book. I read your sample and really enjoyed it – there is a definite thread of suspense that makes me want to keep reading to … Continue reading →