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| photo courtesy prominentoffers.com |
The literal definition of the word confluence, thanks to Google (what would we do without Google?), is the place where two rivers merge. The image is just too rich to ignore as a metaphor, especially for full-time writers like me.
I have had times in my twenty-plus year career when I could do no wrong. I just happened to be writing the right manuscript (The Innocent), at the right time (the late 1990's), which I sent to the right agent (Jimmy Vines in NYC), who sold it to the right marketplace (Delacorte Press) in a two book, hard and soft deal worth $235K. I was floored.
Movie companies were frantically calling and full feature picture deals were being considered by the likes of Dreamworks and Robert DeNiro's production company. Even George Clooney wanted in. There were others, but I forget them now. But you get the point. Newspapers and magazines wanted to write about me and I happily sat for their interviews. I'm partying in New York City with my agent and editor, renting lavish hotel suites in Gramercy Park, and dining out in expensive steakhouses. I was maybe 34 years old. It was a magical time.
The novel, which is now renamed As Catch Can since another author had already used the title, is released to spectacular reviews. The New York Post writes me a love letter. They call it, "Sensational...masterful...brilliant." Says the Times Union, "As Catch Can is a thriller that has depth and substance, wickedness and compassion." Don Winslow calls it "...tough, stylish, heartbreaking."
Can this novel do no wrong?
The Writer's Curse: The Big Yawn
As it turns out, yes it can. Despite the great reviews and media attention, the novel doesn't sell. When it comes to book buyers, all we get is the big yawn. When I tell people I meet on the street or inside some bar, the title, As Catch Can, they inevitably look at me with furrowed brow and respond, "As Catch what?" Even when they finally get it, they search for a book called Catch As Catch Can, and I lose yet another sale. Things tumble downwards from there in a ... wait for it... confluence of disasters.
I've put the majority of my advance into a new house, while my wife at the time asks me for a divorce. Whatever money I have left, goes to the divorce lawyer and alimony payments (the divorce was ugly, but we're good friends now). I had been a freelancer prior to the big deal, but since I was falsely convinced more and more huge deals were right around the corner, I cut ties with my clients. My agent won't return my calls, my publisher won't publish anymore books once the contract is fulfilled, I owe the IRS a bunch of cash, and I'm out of work.
Getting a major deal might have been the worst thing to ever happen to me.
Damage Control for the Writer
Fast forward a few years. I'm in full damage control mode, and back to freelance writing, slowly digging myself out of my professional and financial hole. I'm also back to writing fiction on the side. I pen a new detective novel called Moonlight Falls and I sell it to a small press. Its not the biggest deal in the world, but I'm officially back in the game. I write another Dick Moonlight PI novel, Moonlight Rises, and then I write a big standalone called The Remains. It's at this time, a nifty little device called the Kindle hits the marketplace and along with it, Kindle Direct Publishing. All sorts of little publishers are springing up. eBooks are their bread and butter.
In the meantime, my new agent has successfully gotten the rights to The Innocent (As Catch Can) and its follow-up, Godchild, back from Delacorte. It was a stroke of very good luck. Because what that meant was I could now republish both books with my new publisher.
The Writer is Back on Top
I'm in Italy with my then girlfriend when more good news comes my way. The Innocent is not only rocketing up the charts, it will eventually land in the Number 2 spot on the overall Amazon bestseller list and stay in the top ten for a full month. Altogether, I will sell 100K copies in a little more than 6 weeks. At the same time, Godchild will sell 25K copies. And my new novel, The Remains, will sell 25K+ copies also. The movie companies are calling again and so is the press. It's a confluence of good luck.
I'll go on to land another major deal with one of the Amazon Publishing imprints for all of the above- stated novels, plus the entire Dick Moonlight PI series. I'll hit the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists with a box set I'm included in, and my novel Moonlight Weeps will win both the ITW Thriller Award and the PWA Shamus Award. Suddenly, life is grand again.
A Golden Age Dawns for Genre Fiction Writers
Despite the good karma, I'm not as stupid as I was years earlier when I decided to live life like a rock star and give up creating opportunities for myself. Success in the writing business can be cyclical at best, fleeting at worst. That said, I start a small publishing company called Bear Media, and I begin publishing several brand new series under its imprints. Books like The Shroud Key, sell tens of thousands of copies, others not so much, but they still sell, and I don't have to split the proceeds with another publisher or an agent. I can also write whatever the hell I want. Best of all, I have total control. I'm no longer a slave to the fickle publishing system. The golden age of genre fiction writing was upon us.
Not Everything is Rosy for the Writer
Spring ahead another few years. The editors and marketing pros I worked with at the Amazon Publishing imprint are gone and a whole new crew has taken their place. I still have maybe five novels with them, including The Remains, but they rarely communicate with me anymore and my once four-figure per month income has dwindled considerably. But I now have forty-plus novels under my own label, and I'm writing new books for two more publishers. By the looks of things, I'm about to strike a contract extension with one of them. We're also getting movie interest again.
The point to all this? The older you get, the more you recognize the seesaw patterns in the professional writing business. To put it simply, nothing is guaranteed, and like I once told the New York Times in a 2014 interview, publishers aren't in the business to be your friend. One day they're wining and dining you, and the next they're ghosting your emails. A writer can go through years of total media disinterest and then suddenly, you're once more an overnight sensation.
The thing to keep in mind is this: the highs are never that high and the lows are really never that low. There are going to be good times, and you must learn to endure the bad by creating your own income streams like I did with Bear Media. That's the reality of the writer's life. But hey, that's show biz, folks. Don't like it? Get a real job.
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