Two pieces of good news came in this week. First, an author I really respect agreed to read The Last Track and provide comments for a review. I was kind of in shock for a day or two after the reply returned; it seemed surreal. Unfortunately, email can’t exactly be laminated or I would be carrying it around right now. So their kind note exists as a bit of digital glory for now, between myself and the screen, but unbelievably appreciated.

Also, an up and coming actor has agreed to lend his voice to The Last Track. Starting in late January, every few days a podcast of a scene in the book will appear here and at the publisher for download, free to all. Working sequentially, over the course of about six months the book will become available online in audio form.

Unlike the uber-heavy presence I played during in the book trailer, which continued well into editing and post production, my plan with the podcast is to set the actor up with what he needs and let him tear. Periodically I’ll check if he wants feedback or suggestions. Otherwise, I’m staying out of his way as much as possible.

Leaving the reading the actor frees me up to keep writing and working with the publisher on the marketing battle plans.

With September comes anxiety. Stress over the impending–and seemingly endless–list of tasks that must be done before the students return. No matter the intentions, no matter the diligence of the preparations, a week before school starts, it feels like the tech office is about two weeks behind. Somehow, everything comes together and the year starts relatively smoothly. More or less.

This year, however, with the addition of a Technology Associate to the Tech Office, we are actually ahead of schedule. So for the first time, I’m not popping Prilosec like candy and praying for October to come. And I got to take some time off during the summer, too. Nifty.

I’ve been told the galleys for The Last Track will land in about two or three weeks. Galleys are exactly like the finished book, with the same layout and fonts, only with a plain cover. Instead of the sweet graphic, it’s ISBN, Title, Publish date, etc.

Kinda psyched about that.

While it seems like The Last Track has taken forever to reach print, and it’s still six months out from release, one writer of note who know had two novels on the NYT best seller list had a far tougher and longer journey. Consider the story:

Imagine writing a novel, spending years trying to get picked up, weathering 130 rejections, then landing an agent. The agent sticks with you for nine years, then drops you because the novel is “unsellable”. So the author presses on and places the book ( without an agent ). Publishing weathers a recession–not to be confused with the current depression–and a book scheduled for release dies on the vine because the very large conglomerate kills the imprint and all its projects.

In the event of economic upheaval, you might think the book would revert back to the author who could again begin the shopping process anew. Negative. You then spend two years trying to get the rights back to a novel that the publisher had neither the means nor the intention of publishing. Keep in mind, this is a huge company to be fighting, with tremendous resources.

Fortunately for my new writing hero, he got the rights back, put the book out on his own and got picked up by a huge publisher who threw a bit of their weight behind the release. Now he’s mining silver and gold instead of paper cuts.

To me, I find three morals to the story. First: never never never give up on a project. The only subjective measure of a manuscript is reader feedback. If they haven’t had a chance to weigh in, nothing else matters.

Second, writing and publishing are two different businesses entirely. One can be an excellent writer and a failure in publishing, or a crappy writer yet quite successful at the cash register. Or any combination in between.

Finally, literary agents have had their day. Oh, they will continue to exist for quite awhile, largely because successful writers don’t want to deal with the publisher; authors would rather be writing. Or talking about it, at least. As long as publishers are paying large advances for celebrity books and authors with a track record, there will be agents sucking at the teat. But agents are less the arbiters of viability and more an annoyance the publisher would rather sidestep.

Increasingly the market decides what sinks or floats.

Wikipedia defines blurbs in part as “. . . a short summary or some words of praise accompanying a creative work . . . ” Blurbs are often found on the back of book or DVD covers.

As I’m discovering, netting a blurb from an expert takes some wrangling, but the end result is worth it. A few nice words seldom hurt anyone. Some of these are still under construction, some are in hand. Below is a partial list of the blurb sources for The Last Track:

1) An adviser to the US government who has been stationed in all over the Middle East.

2) An active firefighter with FDNY ( Fire Department of New York ).

3) A writer of the best YA title in the last twenty-five years. << Not JK Rowling or Stephanie Meyer. I’m not writing about wizards or vampires. Don’t get me wrong I love wizards and vampires, and JK Rowling and Stephanie Meyer, and their audiences. Nor am i in any way suggesting that they are not great writers of YA, only that the author in question wrote a story that really clicked with me. So I am writing to them.

More on blurbs in the coming weeks. Till then, I have another novel to write.