Hardest part about writing a book?

[WaylonJennings]

Wondering what some of my fellow authors remember being the biggest grind in the process?

Me? I think it's trying to track people down for interviews, some of whom, depending on what sort of book you're writing, might not have talked to a reporter for decades. It's such an effort to, first of all, find dozens of people, and then to get a hold of them and convince them to share anywhere from 10 minutes to a couple hours of their time with you. It can be draining.

Other elements of authorship that just wore you out? (And didn't Jones say he talked to like 50 people for a single magazine piece? Amazing).

 

[Moderator1]

Hell, the chasing/gathering/interviewing was the fun part for me.
Sitting down and actually writing it was a pain in the ass. My gather-sort-write method worked fine even for longer newspaper stories. For a book? Lesson learned.

Speaking of which, I had a book idea slap me in the face over the weekend and I need to get working. Some of you agents out there, take a chance on me here. Get in touch.

 

[WaylonJennings]

Hell, the chasing/gathering/interviewing was the fun part for me.
Sitting down and actually writing it was a pain in the ass. My gather-sort-write method worked fine even for longer newspaper stories. For a book? Lesson learned.

How would you do it different if you wrote another one?

 

[friend of the friendless]

Sirs, Madames,

Separating publishers from their money.

Selling a book is the hardest (from conception to pitch to negotiation to racks). Nothing else is hard.

o-<

 

[Barsuk]

I haven't written a book (though I've written several small excerpts of the book I'll one day write) but I think the hardest thing for me, being a newspaperman, would be the lack of a daily deadline. I find it hard enough to focus on stuff that won't run for a week or two, so if the light at the end of the tunnel is months or even years ahead, I think I would struggle.

 

[Moderator1]

Hell, the chasing/gathering/interviewing was the fun part for me.
Sitting down and actually writing it was a pain in the ass. My gather-sort-write method worked fine even for longer newspaper stories. For a book? Lesson learned.

How would you do it different if you wrote another one?

I'd write it in chunks. Gather/organize/write, gather some more/organize some more/write some more.
I busted ass on research, interviews, whatever and then sat starting at a pile of notes and a TON of writing to do. Got it done, sure, but damn.

 

[pseudo]

(And didn't Jones say he talked to like 50 people for a single magazine piece? Amazing).

If you're referring to "The Things That Carried Him," I think it was over 100.

(checking) Yup. 101.

 

[write then drink]

for me, the hardest part has always been the gathering of info -- waiting for call backs, trying to track down phone numbers for forgotten people, hours glaring at microfilm in the library looking for that one quote you know is there somewhere ..

writing is the dessert after a meal you didn't really like

 

[WaylonJennings]

for me, the hardest part has always been the gathering of info -- waiting for call backs, trying to track down phone numbers for forgotten people, hours glaring at microfilm in the library looking for that one quote you know is there somewhere ..

writing is the dessert after a meal you didn't really like

We are kindred spirits then.

 

[dixiehack]

I have a naive question. Is there any sort of market for people who specialize in the research end of book writing? Because that would be my favorite part of the process.

 

[Moderator1]

Yeah - big name authors are always on the lookout for researchers. I believe a big to-do was made over Woodward's search for a researcher for his last book.

 

[WaylonJennings]

I have a naive question. Is there any sort of market for people who specialize in the research end of book writing? Because that would be my favorite part of the process.

I'd like to know this, from the author's standpoint. I was reading Seth Davis's acknowledgements at the end of "When March Went Mad," and like most major authors, he thanked his reasearchers, including a guy who had conducted some interviews for him. But I've tried to use the Google to find the market for these people, get them to do some digging for me, but there doesn't seem to be a big industry out there.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Getting a decent cover:

Jayson Stark's book all about the Phillies features a giant picture of Jayson Stark underneath an ugly title that takes up more than half the cover?

 

[WaylonJennings]

Getting a decent cover:

Jayson Stark's book all about the Phillies features a giant picture of Jayson Stark underneath an ugly title that takes up more than half the cover?

They've done that with other guys. I think that there's a book called something like "The Maisel Factor" with a smiling Ivan on the cover.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Getting a decent cover:

Jayson Stark's book all about the Phillies features a giant picture of Jayson Stark underneath an ugly title that takes up more than half the cover?

They've done that with other guys. I think that there's a book called something like "The Maisel Factor" with a smiling Ivan on the cover.

That's fine if the book is about the guy, like Sal Palontonio Explains Football or whatever he has been writing. But this is a book about the Phillies!!

 

[swenk]

I have a naive question. Is there any sort of market for people who specialize in the research end of book writing? Because that would be my favorite part of the process.

I'd like to know this, from the author's standpoint. I was reading Seth Davis's acknowledgements at the end of "When March Went Mad," and like most major authors, he thanked his reasearchers, including a guy who had conducted some interviews for him. But I've tried to use the Google to find the market for these people, get them to do some digging for me, but there doesn't seem to be a big industry out there.

Most authors find someone who has some solid background on the subject; someone who knows where to look and who to talk to, and who can tell you what you're missing.

Otherwise, you're paying a researcher to first educate himself about your topic. I've had authors hire students or eager young reporters, and usually the results are not great.

As for the original question about the hardest part of book writing: Is there an EASY part?

 

[WaylonJennings]

Getting a decent cover:

Jayson Stark's book all about the Phillies features a giant picture of Jayson Stark underneath an ugly title that takes up more than half the cover?

They've done that with other guys. I think that there's a book called something like "The Maisel Factor" with a smiling Ivan on the cover.

That's fine if the book is about the guy, like Sal Palontonio Explains Football or whatever he has been writing. But this is a book about the Phillies!!

Oh, agreed. Clearly, however, they think that their writers are big enough names that their name sells the book, not the topic. It's all part of the branding of Jayson Stark or Ivan Maisel or whoever else.

 

[friend of the friendless]

Mister Predictor,

Getting a decent cover:

Jayson Stark's book all about the Phillies features a giant picture of Jayson Stark underneath an ugly title that takes up more than half the cover?

That's not hard. It's impossible.

It shocked me how slipshod and last-minute publishers were with covers. I lucked out with the first cover of my Crosby bio--I knew a photog had a great portrait of him standing on the frozen St Lawrence and subsequent paperbacks were all good-looking. But inevitably the hardcovers of my other books didn't look as good as the paperbacks.

Re interviews: I know for the one historical book I put together I had 112 interviews and had to do all the photo research. (If you think the latter was easy. I dug previously unpublished photos from the archive of the long defunct official newspaper of Communist Czechoslovakia.) There were probably 20 more interviews on my list thatI wasn't able to land.

o-<

 

[clutchcargo]

Waylon, Moddy:
Chasing down the dozens of interviews can be as frustrating as it is fun. It's a drag when you are going from A to B to C to wherever to get a working, correct phone number for 28 scattered individuals, but the fun part is getting the person on the phone and pulling good stuff out of them.

Biggest drag to me is transcribing. I do that more for books than nor newswriting in paper or magazine, just because of the nature of the beast. I'm not real fast taking good notes, and I want the continuity of a conversational interview instead of asking the person to hold on while I catch up.

The other tough part about writing is gearing it down---on newspaper deadline, you are cranking, looking for a rhythm and quickly making sure all your facts are right. With books, it takes a lot of patience to gear it down and 'craft' the prose a little better. That can be tough switching from the 'fast-twitch fibers' down to the 'slow-twitch.'

Getting the advance payments are nice, but usually you are so busy with the book by the time you get them, and having to eat a large chunk of them to cover your expenses, that you really don't get to enjoy them that much. But a year or two down the road, as long as your book is selling some copies, getting that $1200 royalty check out of the blue when you had pretty much forgotten about the book and moved on is pretty sweet.

 

[Moderator1]

Unless your publishing company pulls a SportsPublishing and goes bankrupt. Then NO ROYALTIES FOR YOU!

Saw someone buying my book a couple of weeks ago. Wanted to go up and say, No, no, buy one of the one's in my trunk. That way I'll get some money for it. But I thought that would be crass.