I Wrote it Now What

I Wrote it, Now What?
Article by J.M.Lamoreux

I have written a book. I decided one day to collect all my short stories that I'd scribbled together in classes at Truckee Meadows Community College and put them in book form. Good idea. I collected them up, worked them, and began the first steps in a process that I still have no clue about. Considering the complexity of "the book business," I'm not ashamed.

What qualifies me to write this article about writing? I have written a book and now I need to decide what to do next. I'm not alone in this dilemma. The reason I'm not alone is that electronic publishing and Print on Demand (POD) technology has caused thousands of "wanna be" writers to answer their own question, "I wrote it, now what?" Here's your chance to see it in print...do something.

I chose the self-publishing route because I believe the book itself is a work of art, and I want to control its look as well as its content. Everyone has his or her reasons. The book is a small one, illustrated with ninety-four pages and letter size (in the print version). The title is "Patient 444 and Other Short Stories." The stories are inspired from ghost tales in the Reno/Tahoe/Carson City area. Having lived in that area for over twenty years now, I am privy to "local legends" that step outside the more familiar "Mining Towns of Nevada," or "The History of Prostitution in Nevada," writer's trade.

I write horror based on the essence of stories passed down by word of mouth (or what I call "folk horror)." I think it's edgy. My book deals with things like ghosts in a next-door apartment, a spirit in a haunted gym, and ghosts in river water measured at a Water Master's house, predator ghost wolves at the Donner Memorial in Truckee, and oh yes...a haunted mall bathroom and more. "The Egg" won "best fiction" in 2005 along with a student award from Truckee Meadows Community College. It was published in the TMCC College literary and art magazine, "The Meadow." It's included in my book. The proof version of my creation sits on top of my scanner right now. Nice work if I say so myself. But it's only part of the answer to my original question.  

Maybe this is "Phase Two?" Many of my stories were work-shopped on one of the writing groups on Yahoo that I subscribe to. On "ticket2write," there is a nice clutch of experienced and beginning writers proving an excellent resource for reviews. The story goes there to its second audience. It's at this point that my original question begins to drum up partial answers. Here's where I learn how well my story reads to other eyes.

A significant fact operating is that each person who reads my story rewrites it in his or her head. It's their treasury of memories, images, and experiences that they bring to my words. The other thing they are scanning for is flow, what causes a reader to stumble. Workshops are good...trust me.

Ok, I have all the notes and comments down, I use them to rework what I have, and I launch my creation again. Again, it comes back to me with flaws that I thought I had handled in the revision. There's a reason that we are told by people who have been through this process to "Get a human editor." I get one, but I can only afford $150.00 for a "first-read, light-edit." It shows in consequent reviews.

Now I have to pause and reassess. I ask myself, "Is your story still at the stage where you're entertaining yourself and maybe a few close friends, or would you like other people to be able to read and react to what you've done?" If you stop and think through that question, examine the markets, hang out with authors and publishers on mailing lists and listen...not talk, you begin to get a sense of how that question is shaping up for you. The harsh reality packed into the statement "I wrote it, now what?" is staggering. Your book sojourns into a sea of millions of others. As you launch it from the shore, you can see it being swallowed in an ocean of similar publications. It's depressing; go on, it's all right to say it.

I published my book through Lulu.com. On the one hand, I am told this is the "Kiss of Death." Things published through a "subsidy" are not vetted. Anyone can do it. It's thought that the subsidy publisher produces a little gold, a lot of mud. I can see where that might be the case, and yet now, as I hold my book in my hands, a part of me wonders if I am looking at gold or mud. "I wrote it, now what?"

It seems I always manage to ask the hard questions after the fact. But that's how it can happen in an era where publishing your thoughts and ideas comes so easy...and the vetting of your work so painfully hard.


J.M.Lamoreux is the award-winning author of "Patient 444 and Other Short Stories," his short story "The Egg" won best fiction in 2005. He is a student at Truckee Meadows Community College. His official web site is at www.jmlamoreux.com.