FROM THE INSIDE OUT

by

Jack W Boone

This may be the most unusual tale you have ever read from a writer, but I write for the love of it and have no interest in the commercialization of my work. I retired from a great business that gives me the luxury to spend the rest of my life doing as I please and I’m doing just that.

Some people make ceramic pots in retirement. Others play golf, travel, do wood work or pursue other hobbies to keep themselves occupied. For my retirement I chose writing. My life is full and wonderful, except for the infirmities that come with old age.

There was never any question in my mind about what I would do when I entered the second phase of my life. I wanted to write stories and books. The only question was whether I would ever retire at all from a business that I truly loved.

Believe it or not, I have the government to thank for my retirement. They filed a frivolous lawsuit against my company and some twenty others a few years back on ridicules grounds. That lawsuit helped me make up my mind to get out of the business. I was also mad. I wanted to do something about a vicious and unwarranted attack on our industry. Reviewing the government’s tactics during the suit made me want to do something about that also, so I decided to write a book outlining changes that would hopefully clean up that mess in Washington. Knowing full well that the ordinary citizen no longer had a voice in our government, I wrote it anyway and titled it "The Nation’s Party Concept." I didn’t try to sell it, but I got it off my chest and that is all that mattered to me at the time.

The book received good reviews from many concerned readers. A few people bought extra copies to send to their legislators. I tried to tell them that it was a waste of good postage. Many more copies went to friends. I knew that nothing could be done about a government so out of control that it was feeding off its own dying carcass. Having a bad attitude is not the way to write anything. Rage is all consuming, and not interesting.

To date, I have seventeen published books, eight novels, one book of short stories and eight smaller books, some novelettes and some nonfiction to my credit. They are all diverse, interesting and good stories. I have other novels that I am working on daily. They run the gauntlet from the Civil War era, to contemporary and cover many subjects from murder to terrorism and just plain, good, interesting detective work. Although some book stores sell my books on special order, I prefer that they be sold from my web page, I give the proceeds to charity.

The pleasure comes in the creation of the product. Critics have commented favorably on my books and issued some very constructive advice. I have incorporated much of the advice for a next printing (if there is one). I think the supreme compliment came from a reader at a book signing. She was buying her third book when she exclaimed, "It is so exciting to meet you in person. Why, you write like a real author."

I am a far cry from most authors. Some of the more famous were suicidal or addicted to something unpleasant. I knew one such famous writer briefly. He was certainly not my role model. At one time it was thought that pain and suffering made a good writer. If that is true, and I don’t believe it is, then my chance for immorality as a writer may be ruined, because I don’t qualify.

Here is another goal of my retirement.

The creative process opens many mental doors. Usually more than one writer can possibly record in a lifetime. I talk to people a lot and am constantly amazed at their life stories. I am also amazed at the number who realize that their story may be interesting but will not take the time to document it. I explain to them that, if they don’t write it down now, a hundred years from now nobody will know about it. Acknowledged, their manuscripts will not be as polished as a professional writer would make it, but the outline and gist of the stories will be there and that is what is important.

Every parent and grandparent should write their life experiences for the benefit of future generations who will never have the luxury of knowing them personally. Stories told about them by others could be distorted with time and retelling. If they don’t write it down now, the true version will go to their graves with them. Surprisingly, most are worried that they will look foolish because they have a problem with spelling, syntax, grammar or some other obscure reason. Actually, they are afraid that what seemed like a full and interesting life to them would be dull and uninteresting to others. I explain that their reasoning is flawed because, if they put in the details that made their life full and interesting to them, it will be interesting to their children. I have convinced a few, but not very many.

Actually, I have never written my own complete story. I conducted my business in a rather cookie-cutter manner, so the excitement didn’t warrant a book at the time. There are many wonderful moments of pleasure that my wife and I derived from our business years. We don’t need to record those. I do have a private chronicle about me and my family that may prove to be interesting to some future grandchild. It is not worthy of general publication.

Life, to me, is like a huge circle, divided into segments. Each segment represents a part of our total being, be it good, bad or indifferent. Successful people have a special energy segment that made them successful. Conversely, so does a prisoner. There is good and bad in everybody. People seem to concentrate on the segment that is the most comfortable at the time. Segment orientation can, and does, change. Mine was business, and now it is writing.

Writers are a strange breed. Of the hundreds of thousands, or possibly millions, who do it, those who make it really big can be counted on your fingers and toes. It is a business, and to be successful, it must conform to the basic principles as practiced in the world of business, ---- not literary. Advertising, sales and public relations are everything. Quality can be manufactured with the proper support personnel (editorial) and a good budget. Publishers depend on a quality cover and about ten pages of good writing with a good "hook" to make you buy the book. Follow that up with the right publicity, and you have the formula of a best-seller. Literary merit takes a back seat to sales appeal. It is the name of the author that sells a book. Surly you have noticed promotional advertising like this: Presenting, "Blowing up the World, a new novel by Shirley Shortpants, award winner and best-selling author."

Shirley’s name will occupy about two-thirds of the front cover.

Now, --- look back at books written years ago and you will see that the book is promoted as literature, not the fame of the author. That is the difference between then and now. Any well known name can write a book today (a ghost writer does the actual writing) and sell a few copies, usually enough for the publisher to get his money back, and hopefully make a profit.

I believe a slick PR firm can promote the most ordinary person to near deity status with the use of modern day communications. They grease the skids with appearances on numerous high profile TV shows so that an otherwise unknown person could write a book filled with the word fish in forty languages and it would be on the best-seller list. Book sellers know that and will order these books in advance of publication, many times with no idea of the story line, as long as it comes from the number one author of the moment.

Needless to say, the commercialization of literature the way it is being done is not leaving a legacy that we can be proud of a hundred years from now. The question is; will the literature of their day be as good?

Writing is a solitary business and should not be done in concert with some other demanding job or profession. Even in the business world, to have the demands of personal responsibility tugging at your coattails is disconcerting and down right irritating at times.

I like to read the work of the author who writes from conviction and not to please a commercial audience. The problem is that his work will not sell because he cannot generate the volume to make it profitable to publish. A newspaper publisher might have the best paper in the world, but if he has only a hundred readers, his impact is minimal and his losses’ huge. The same rule applies to writers. You write for the mass market or don’t quit your day job. Personal economics will usually take care of that. There are not many garrets left in the United States these days that a writer can afford.

So, I write for posterity, and not from a garret, but a comfortable studio in an atmosphere of prosperity. I hope that a hundred years from now, some professor will pick up one of my books and have his class try to determine my personality, intellect, talent (or lack thereof), ability, mental agility and other factors to decide if I was a genius or a charlatan, or somewhere in between. That would be the fulfillment of my fondest dream.

Once people know that you have been published, it seems to make you an expert in their eyes. If you are prone to get a big head from flattery, you will get it then.

I wrote a story about writers as a hand-out to a group of aspiring writers at a conference. It was later published. I am going to attach it to this piece. Please excuse the redundancies.

SO YOU WANT TO BE AN AUTHOR

by

Jack W. Boone

If being an author is your ambition, it would do you well to know something about your predecessors. Here are a few facts that might help.

Ernest Hemingway committed suicide.

Edgar Allen Poe lived in abject poverty all of his life.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was an incurable alcoholic.

Mark Twain went bankrupt and had to make speeches to live.

Bret Harte went broke and took a job with the government.

Truman Capote died a drug-addicted alcoholic.

William Faulkner was a recluse during the latter part of his life.

Stephen Crane died of TB before his twenty-ninth birthday.

O Henry (William S. Porter) was a convicted thief and fled the country.

Jack London made a million dollars, lost it, then committed suicide.

There were many other famous authors who suffered the privations of the fame generated by their work.

I was told at an early age that, once achieved, the elusive and heady success of winning is a hollow victory in the end. Some compare it to working most of your life to make a fortune then suddenly realizing that there is no pleasure left in the process. At that point, the illusion takes on a certain manifestation of guilt that maybe you didn’t do enough for your fellow man on your way up, so you create a mental block, hoping to find happiness and humility like you had before making it. It never happens. You live with what you create. If you choose not to record your trip, it will go away when you do, and some poor sap will do it all over again. That formula has been repeated millions of times. Records survive. That, if for no other reason, is why you should write it down.

So, it is true that the fun quickly goes out of the game once you have won. It is the struggle that’s important. The fight becomes tiring and, in fact, boring in many respects. I know from whence I speak. I reached that same conclusion at the end of my forty-year business career. I had won—now what? . What was the use of continuing to win? All I could gain was more resource, and I didn’t need that. But, even while I was struggling in the early years, I loved my business. I didn’t have time to worry about success or anything else and failure never crossed my mind.

After I achieved some degree of notoriety, success and financial security, the entire situation became burdensome and I wanted to get away from it. Like a business, a writing career is a struggle, but the illusion will not go away. The moment you start your first manuscript you are a success. You have created something unique. Whether it sells or not isn’t the question at that point. The question usually is why didn’t I do this long before now. If you love your writing/business, don’t hesitate. Go for the gold, but to get it, you must love it.

My writing career was done in reverse. I made my security first, then started writing. Most writers don’t have that luxury and I wouldn’t recommend it. It is difficult to generate the necessary passion if all of the bumps have been smoothed out before your trip. Experience, the world’s greatest teacher, seems to abandon you once your work ethic drops. It is easy to throw an object away if you know that it is not going to affect you one way or the other, but difficult if that is the only one you have. A writing career is a lot like that. Cherish the one you have, because there is not another on the shelf. Every moment is precious.

I write novels, novelettes, short stories, editorials, features and opinions on many subjects and post them on my web page.  I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and look forward to writing until I finish this tour on earth. I don’t want fame, or money, or to satisfy critics. All I want to do is write and I am doing it every day. If nobody ever reads a word of my prose, it’s not important. They are the ones who missed out. I like it, and that is all that counts.

Telling people that I write for posterity, not prosperity, might make them wonder if I have the drive and respect for my work to create to the best of my ability. I do. I cherish each piece as if the world is waiting for it and I am dragging my feet. I am as hooked as an addict must be on narcotics. I can hardly wait to get to my computer. I have far more outlines that I am afraid time will allow me to finish. I plan to leave all of my work to a university for their creative writing class to play with or throw away, as they see fit. I am sure they will spend some time trying to figure out what kind of person I was in life.

The events that affected the authors listed above and my story must not deter you from pursuing a career in writing, for there is nothing as satisfying or captivating as doing what you want to do. By your very nature and desire to become a writer, you are obligated to add your name and work to the long list of those who have helped make the world a more literate and decent place in which to live. That is the mandate you assumed when you elected to join this brotherhood.

Anybody who tells you that writing is a craft and not an art has missed the bus.  In my opinion such a person knows very little about writing. Writing is an art as surely as painting or sculpture is art. It not only stirs the emotions, but creates a vivid picture of time and place in the mind of the reader. It transports a reader away from the present and makes him or her a part of the story as surely as any great painter could do with his brush. It is true that the eye creates certain images that, in turn, creates emotions, but so does the mind. Emotions are stirred between the covers of a well-written book because it carries your very soul to a particular locale where you are able to see in your mind’s eye what is happening as the story moves along. You actually become a part of the story as an observer. Granted, not everyone sees a painting the same way, but neither does everyone read a book the same way. What is repugnant to one will elicit ecstatic reactions from another. That is the human aspect of life and the curse of authors. They must write to satisfy the majority of readers or become a literary writer, and that is a starvation trip.

Some writers gain their fame and fortune after they depart this world, just like great artists of the past. And like those artists, many of these writers did not write for compensation at the moment, although it is a necessary evil in some cases. They write to record a story, a scene, a situation and hopefully make it enjoyable reading for years to come. Their dream was to challenge the mind of a reader and send him on a journey that is not available anywhere else in the world.

Having made my security and ensured that it is safe has had one adverse influence on me, I cannot generate the fire in my belly necessary to get out in the marketplace and sell my books, and that is required to be a successful commercial writer these days. Even some writers who have gained notoriety in their lifetimes find it necessary to interrupt their creative schedule to sell books. Unfortunately, because of these demands on their time and resources by publishers, the literary world suffers a loss. It is a fact that publicity keeps their books in the limelight, and limelight demands’ personal appearances and direct contact. That also might be the reason for the fable that the greatest work is done by writers and artists living in a cold-water flat with an empty refrigerator. I personally don’t believe that to be true. Writing when hungry and cold had to be a distraction that could not convey anything but poverty,doom and gloom.  People don’t like to read about poverty because many have suffered it in one form or the other during their lifetime and it is distasteful. It is not pleasant in any form. I remember 1929. It was not a "cool" period by a long shot, but several great writers came out of that period. I knew one of them very well. He came out of the depression drunk and stayed that way for the rest of his life, but he was a great talent.

I consider the publishing industry’s approach to selling books a bit bazaar. As a former businessman, if an individual came to me with a good product and offered to sell it to me at a decent price, I would buy it. Then, after I had spent the money, I would pull out all of the stops to sell it. If I made a mistake, I lost money. If I made a good decision, I made money. Business is about as simple as that, with a few sidebars that require a bit more expertise. In the publishing industry it seems to be the norm to go through the manufacturing process with no sales feasibility information. The process is a shot-in-the-dark. Their concept is to throw the naked product out into the marketplace with a little or no promotion, hoping that it will catch on. Any other industry that pulled such a stunt would be drummed out of the business world. The publishers don’t sell books. They place them in stores on consignment. They are at the mercy of the book store owner. If he wants to push something other than your book, it is shuffled to the back table. To me that is not selling, but taking orders. The store owner’s only incentive is profit, and not recovery of his investment. He has none. As a consigned product, the merchandise can be returned to the publisher for full credit at any time, and the numbers reshuffled. I would think that, if the store owner has some responsibility to regain his investment, he would be more inclined to "sell" books, rather than display them, hoping that the passing parade will buy a few.

Having seen the evolution of our country from the depths of a depression with its attendant poverty, to the pinnacle of comfort for the masses, I can only hope my work will add to the literary base created by past word merchants of that interesting time. I hope some distant reader will think that he is reading this writer’s Mona Lisa in words. It has been said that Leonardo de Vinci was so enamored by his Mona Lisa after finishing it that he refused to deliver it to the purchaser. A writer should feel the same about his or her work. It is not practical today to withhold work for those personal emotional reasons, but the feeling should be there just the same. It would be the greatest of all acclamations for any writer or artist for his or her work to become a beloved work of the future.

Writing is dated, unfortunately. That is the basic difference in great art and great writing. For obvious reasons, Sir Walter Scott could not write that one of his characters picked up the phone. They couldn’t have jumped on a plane for the same reason. That should not deter writers from doing work, in fact, it should enhance it because of the stories ability to take the reader back in time to a golden age. For that reason, I have tried to keep my stories as basic as practical to give them as much a longevity as possible. Newspapers print contemporary stories, not writers of fiction, (although sometimes I have my doubts about that.) I try to tell the emotional side of a story and not the physical side, however, some of the physical aspects must creep in to keep the story credible. Michelangelo never extolled the brand of chisel he used, or where he bought the stone for his great works. Neither did other great artists. It was the work that stood alone before the critical public to see in their own mind’s eye as representative of what the writer wanted them to see, read or hear.

A typical example of the short life of shallow artistic work would be the old television shows made many years ago. They are dated and nobody is interested in seeing them again. The memories they stir are too recent, and too many people were not living as well then as they are now, so why stir up unpleasant memories? Many movies are in the same category, and will probably never be seen again. Great literature escapes that fate. Jane Austen’s work is still read today as eagerly as it was in the early nineteenth century when she wrote it. A writer can only hope that his or her own work will reach some degree of the same repute. That would be the greatest of all fortunes.

The fact that I consider great writing to be art is not because I think mine is in that category, but because it has as much staying power as any other art. I know one of my books will be read a hundred years from now because it’s in a time capsule to be opened in the year twenty-one hundred. ( That is doing it the hard way.)

I view poetry as art because it usually has a lot more staying power than fiction. Great poetry will definitely enhance the emotional state of an intelligent reader. It, in the short run, is probably better than fiction in that way because it creates a state of mind that is immediate whereas fiction usually builds to a climax with time. It definitely is an art and requires extraordinary talent to do it correctly.

Technical writing has a short life span before the obsolescence factor kicks in. After its subject matter is superceded by a better product, it becomes just so much waste paper. In my opinion, it is a list, not art.

After all is said and done, do your job well and collect your dues when offered, but give the work to the world for immorality. It may not come back by way of fame and fortune immediately, but it will come back in the form of your contribution to a world of knowledge and pleasure. After you have delivered each project, go to the next with the enthusiasm of the first because you never know which will be the one that will catch the world’s fancy and put you on a pedestal.

Production for a writer is different from that of a single purpose achiever, for our careers begin anew with the first sentence of each new story. The sun will continue to rise for eternities after you and I are gone, but well written prose never dies, but lives forever and continues to do its work. I offer as examples the works of Socrates and the Egyptians. Can you ask for more satisfaction than that?

The day of the independent author could be coming to an end. As a former businessman, and understanding the complexities of the world of trade, the commercialization of the book business has necessarily drifted from the literary world to the world of commerce. The phrase "Publishing is a business" is being heard more and more in the field. There are just so many places to cut to keep stockholders happy, so the business will remain under the scrutiny of the methods engineers forever. Publishers have "conglomerated" themselves into a corner.

Corporations will continue to exist as long as they make money. The very day that stops, they become candidates of either bankruptcy or merger. Most choose the latter. That means that the process of publishing has moved away from the artistic appreciation of a work to its potential to make a profit. The following is what I think will happen to the corporate future of publishing.

I envision a day when publishers will register and own a block of male and female names to be used as "authors" for their future product. One of those names will appear on every book that they publish, as the author of the work in that genre. (Example: Betty Crocker® ) The real author will not sell his work in the conventional manner, but will literally sell it, including the copyright, to the publisher for a one-time fee and relinquish any claim to the work or the rights. The real author becomes a ghost writer.

This is how it benefits the corporation. The publisher will pay a single payment to the writer with no royalties or residuals. The publisher will be in a much better position to negotiate a better price for the manuscript. The publisher can sell the rights as the sole owner of the property. By using their own company-owned author’s name, the corporation can take advantage of all prior publicity and build on it for the future. The corporate "author" never dies or becomes a party to a compromising situation for the tabloids or other embarrassing situations. Agents will operate as they do now, except they will only have one item to negotiate, the final sales price, and the corporate negotiator will be a purchasing department rather than an editor. Technology will soon be available to scan a manuscript and make sure it covers all of the requirements to make it sell. The software will match the written word to the mind-set of the average buyer. If it doesn’t match, the software will alert the corporation that changes need to be made in the plot and where those weaknesses are located. That will facilitate a huge savings in all editing functions. The mechanical book will fill of the requirements looked for now by a live editor.

Much of the savings will go directly to the bottom line of the P & L statement. I don’t know that for a fact, but I can imagine that several computer models are already in the works to elaborate on the spell checks and Grammatik programs that "read" a manuscript, and the famous names of the future will be that of a ghost and carried on the books as a corporate asset.

The freedom to write with no restraints is one reason why I like my personal situation. Having had my career in business first, I learned to live with all of the privileges that come with good fortune, the right clubs, right cars and homes, right friends and all the other perks. Many of my friends are deceased, and the funerals of others take up some of my time now, but I still find plenty of time to write.

As a writer, let nothing anybody says deter you as you stumble along your way, and remember, there is an end to that beautiful rainbow of the mind, and many times, it does contain a pot of gold.