Resuscitating the Dream

Many of you may have noticed - OK, two or three of you may have noticed - that my eBook Living in a Banana Dream is quickly disappearing from eBook store shelves. While I would love to tell you that it’s because it is a New York Times Bestseller, or even a Home and Store News Luke Warm Seller (that’s a nod to my friends up in Jersey), it’s for a different reason.

Living in a Banana Dream is being revamped. Several new chapters are being added; terrible editing is being corrected; rights are being wronged. No, wait. Wrongs are being righted. This is all in an effort to bring Banana Dream to not only digital readers but to brick and mortar shelfs as well in paperback form.

After putting it off for quite some time for a variety of reasons I have finally gotten the opportunity to duck in full force and I am working my way through the process of having the book picked up by a publisher right now. It’s a tedious process but let me tell all of you aspiring, un-agented authors out there, take it serious. You will learn a lot about yourself and your book in the process.

The hardest part, at least for me, is not overselling the book, making it more than it is. For my outdoor recreation books like Hiking Through History Alabama or Hiking Alabama I am very familiar with the publisher so either they ask me directly for a book or I know exactly what is expected when I propose a book. I know the right balance of enthusiasm.

It’s different with Living in a Banana Dream. I’m delving into the literary publishing world, a much different beast. Banana Dream has been brewing for quite some time and when you work something that long and hard you can’t help but be excited and are willing to promise a publisher the moon to get it to print. I’ve learned a lot about gauging the audience, the submissions manager, from this process and how to talk about the book in glowing terms but not going off the charts, even subduing my marketing plan from doing a 10,000 city book tour down to something more reasonable (I exaggerate about 10,000 cities…but I can dream, can’t I?)

The main thing is that the process gives you a chance to review your book again. In the query letter of a proposal you need to give the publisher a little excitement, that this book belongs in their catalog. I did that and realized that there was a disconnect between my initial “hook” and the book itself. I have since revamped that section and now the feeling of the book is summarized nicely in a single paragraph, much better than my rambling diatribe.

So, the process begins anew. I’ll try to share my exploits with you as the journey progresses for Banana Dream and two new manuscripts almost ready to hit the circuit, a murder mystery called Dead Air, and an historical book on the soundtrack of World War II music, GI Jive.

To be continued…