Catch-22
Catch-22 as defined in McGraw-Hill dictionary states: (noun) “An impossible situation where you are prevented from doing one thing until you have done another thing, but you can not do the other thing until you have done the first thing.”When I first considered writing a book for possible publication I thought the hardest part would be ... well, writing the book. Wrong! I was told that there are only two ways that I could see my book in print. First; I might consider self-publishing. In other words a few hundred hours of my time in creating a business of my own and many thousands of my own dollars invested. Sorry, that’s not going to happen. Or, I was told, there is another way. I could find one of the many hundreds of publishing houses that are in business and try to get one of them to publish my manuscript.
I obtained the latest edition of Writer’s Market and I scrupulously followed their directions. I wrote only to those in my genre and only to the agents or houses that were open to novice or unpublished writers. Of the twenty-seven query letters that I sent I received in return twenty-five form letters stating, in essence, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Two of the people that I wrote to did not even bother to mail a dreaded form letter back to me. Perhaps they needed my SASE more than I did. To me the problem seemed insurmountable because they were not turning down anything that I had written, because none of them had read any of it. They all were turning down my even having the opportunity for them to read it.
Here is where the Catch-22 comes into play: In order for a publishing house to want to look at your work they want you to be represented by an agent. But in order for the agent to want to represent you, they want you to have a published work. WHAT? I thought only politicians talked like that.
So I decided to skip the only two ways that I was told that I could see my book published and I have made up a third way. I’ll call it, “having it my way.” Okay, I admit that it does sound suspiciously like the slogan that Burger King uses, but it was either that or “just do it” and I’m pretty sure that I’ve heard that one before also.
This is the part where all of you come in. The bloggers, geo-cachers, fervent readers, insomniacs, bored out of your minds, you’re mad as hell and your not going to take it anymore! ... Sorry. I was beginning to rant. As soon as I get a tissue and wipe the spittle from my lips I will type some more.
In addition to reading an unpublished manuscript and having the opportunity to act as my agent/publisher/proofreader and general audience you will have a chance to find and receive a buried treasure. Well, I can at least promise you that it is buried... honest (see the follow-up picture). Remember, “What is trash to one, may be treasure to another.”
This seven week contest is for you if you are adventurous, like to read, enjoy contests where you can win a prize, would like to match wits with others, good at riddles and problem solving, likes to take long walks along the beach... No wait, that last phrase is for a different ad I’m running. Here is how this contest will work.
Every Sunday at approximately 7:00 p.m. EST I will post between 30 and 40 pages of my new manuscript (15,000 - 20,000 words). At the end of each new posting there will be a riddle, puzzle, or a problem to solve. Each answer will build to a final climax where the last riddle will have to do with something that you read in the book. Once the entire puzzle is properly put together it will give you geographical coordinates that will tell you exactly where I buried the prize.
Because this is going out over the Internet it would be possible for the person that solves it to be half a world away from where the prize is located. So, I have decided to give away two prizes. The contents will be exactly the same for each winner. As soon as the final portion of the story and the corresponding riddle have been posted, I will begin to accept emails from readers that feel they have the answer. I will accept only the earliest email entry from each individual. In this way it will make it virtually impossible for any person to correctly guess the proper answer. The first person with the exact coordinates and location that emails the answer to me I will the following day send your prize to you by first-class mail. For the second winner, once the city, state, and the exact coordinates are known, if you live nearby and want to take a chance on being first, then you are welcome to come and dig your prize up for yourself.
What’s in it for me? I’m glad you asked. Since we can’t tell which came first, the chicken or the egg, the man or the child, the agent or the publisher et cetera, then my best hope for having my work published in book form is to have a lot of people read it; and I hope find it enjoyable. At that point a publisher might bypass the agents and give me a call. If you do like it then please email me and let me know. But if you are only lukewarm about it or do not care for it, even perhaps dislike it...or maybe...even...hate it! Well you can just, “EAT CRAP AND DIE!!!” Just kidding around...sort of.
All joking aside I really would value your input, both the positive and the negative comments. I have asked a few of my friends, co-workers and a couple of relatives to read it and to give me their opinions. I told them I would like to have their comments so that I could forward them to potential agents and publishers. To this they all readily agreed. But for the purpose of the Internet I removed any personal references to me and I am using only their initials and not their full names. The reason that I chose these six people was that I know that in their private lives they are all devoted readers of the type of fiction that I wrote. See the post below for their thoughts.
posted by Robin Johnson @ 8:00 PM
