Authors Electric

Good titles often whisper sweet nothings in our ears to keep us on track as we work on our books while letting readers know what to expect. A color can remind us of the mood or tone that we hope to sustain. John D. MacDonald knew all about that: The Turquoise Lament, Darker Than Amber , etc. The title of Lawrence Sanders's breakthrough book The Anderson Tapes alerted readers to the ingenious structure of the book and the author to his mission to stay on track with that POV tack. His two best-selling series, the Deadly Sins and the Commandments divided the offering into gritty police procedurals and shorter, lighter mysteries while his McNally mysteries offered comic froth. Ira Levin on the other hand had a title in Rosemary's Baby that helped him fix his focus on realistic details of Rosemary's pregnancy and the birthing to help ground the far-out horror in his mind and ours. These are all Type 1--or what I would call Onesie titles.               ...

It happens to the best of us on both sides of the Pond: we sigh goodbye to our Sexy in time. Then we wonder endlessly how to get it back. Now, of course, in an elegant group like AE we're far more likely to discuss our plumage than our poundage. Nor do we begrudge the few who never lost their Sexy: Tom Wolfe                      Donna Tartt George Bernard Shaw                   Yukio Mishima Still, as some Italian or other once said, I found I'd come to a dark wood. And in that wood I feared the loss of the wild young stallions who'd coursed through my soul. You know, those writing Glory Days: before we find ourselves saddled with rules laid down by addle-brained agents...and fear of rejection or failure. Pay attention. This next part's important:  You may not know your Sexy's gone until it's hit the road. Or as some say in the UK: until it's upped and left ...

Writers may come in all sizes and shapes...and some shapes are stranger than others. But in the end they all belong in one of two great camps. FIRST CAMP First off, you have the outliners. Their argument is simple: a  book is a journey and you can't get There till you know every Here on the way. P. G.Wodehouse's outlines ran to to 30,000 words and were done on index cards mounted all over the walls. Horror writer John Saul's outlines may reach a hundred pages while John Grisham's run to fifty. Even Tom Wolfe once lamented that one of his books took a decade to write because, with no outline, he found himself lost. And we can be certain that Virgil had an outline for the Aeneid: an epic divided into two parts of six Books each, with each part containing the same number of lines. SECOND CAMP But the other camp is as large and as loud: non-outliners who insist on going with the flow--letting the book, as it were, write itself...sometimes on rolls of paper...

Photo shoots don't always develop into sales success. In fact, some well-known authors have stayed away from cameras, while talented authors rely on bland photos suggesting average work. For all that, some savvy pros have reinforced their 'brands' with photos commanding us to give their work a look. Here is a small gallery containing a few of my faves: Since entering the online arena two years ago I'd thought about getting a photo that packed some magic of its own. The shot I had been using, the only one I had, was taken--well, a while back. I no longer smoked, to start with. And the old moody look seemed old hat. So I hit the gym and lost some weight, hoping to channel the image of my fictional hero, Boss MacTavin. Then I set out to find a photographer. And here is where my tale begins to suggest a Saturday Night Live skit. In two years I dealt with four photographers, offering half the fee upfront if we could meet to discuss ...