When I had finished putting together Consumer Joe, that was the point in time when I had my agents send it out to the world. That was when Random House picked it up. All I had to do was send them what I had and go from there.
It was totally different with the second book.
Whether or not you know it (and a lot of people don’t seem to), if you’re going to sell a Non-Fiction book to a publisher, you don’t have to write it first. In fact, you put together a proposal that outlines what the book is going to be about, the competition for the book, what the chapters will include, and a sample chapter so that they can get the feel of it. Based on that 25-30 page document, you can sell your own non-fiction book.
Of course, when you do that — then you’ve got a real deadline that you’ve got to stick with.
Thus, my current deadline. I now have the next four months to get my second book completely written so that my editors at Warner Books can edit (yes, that’s what they do) and so I can revise and rewrite until everyone’s happy. But sometimes that’s tough. It’s easy when you just write when you feel the creative rush versus writing because you have to deliver a certain amount of pages in a certain amount of time.
But never fear — I will triumph over the evil “deadline.”
Sometimes I wonder if the fiction writers have it any easier, though? Sure, they may take three years to write their latest opus — but when it’s done, it’s done. At least, maybe you should ask Lee Goldberg if that’s true. That guy is pumping out original fiction novels like, god, it seems like every single month.
In the meantime, think good thoughts, send me your motivation that you’re not using, and if you’ve gotten a rotten tomato, well, keep it to yourself. The book, which will be coming out next Summer/Fall, is going to change your life — people who have gotten a glimpse at it have suggested that my second book will “change transportation as we know it…”, “offer the downtrodden a chance at happiness”, and “be great for picking stray poppy seeds out of ones teeth”.
God, if only all of that was true.