Songs for lovers of lost causes...

Song of the week... Those of you who know me, know probably all too well of my obsession with music and some of you who go all the way back to my band days will recall how I fixated on a particular song and have to take take it apart and study it from all angles. I especially love old Irish and Celtic tunes and have collected hundreds over the many years playing and listening in pubs from Boston to San Francisco. So I was actually surprised when the other night I heard one down at O'Shea's that I'm sure I must have heard a hundred times before but this time I listened to the words which are all about rebellion and lost causes which must appeal to my Irish/Norwegian blood. So naturally I've been listening to all different versions .. 27 to be exact, for the past week and have finally found the one I like. And I especially like the words.. Which now that I think of it might make a good short story. Like the one I did based on the mountain song, "Long Black Veil"...which by the way you can read in the anthology, Weirdly 3, if you have a mind to. Anyway the song is an old Irish ballad from the 18th Century called The Minstrel Boy and here are the words ... Makes you want to go out and fight for a lost cause. Which as Rhett Butler said to Scarlet, are "the only ones worth fighting for." THE MINSTREL BOY by Thomas Moore The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone In the ranks of death you will find him; His father's sword he hath girded on, And his wild harp slung behind him;" Land of Song!" said the warrior bard, "Tho' all the world betrays thee, One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard, One faithful harp shall praise thee!" The Minstrel fell! But the foeman's chain Could not bring that proud soul under; The harp he lov'd ne'er spoke again, For he tore its chords asunder; And said "No chains shall sully thee, Thou soul of love and brav'ry! Thy songs were made for the pure and free, They shall never sound in slavery!"

A "night at the opera" ... Not really, but better!

We decided on going to see a band last night that a lot of people had been describing as, "must see," on the Cape... And they were right! The group is called Sarah Swain & The Oh Boys and they play a hard driving mix of country, blues and rock-a-billy. We saw them at a packed house at Harvest Wine Bar and the energy couldn't have been higher. In fact after a few pints of some very nice Cape Cod Oatmeal Stout even your humble narrator got onto the dance floor (also very packed!) And at the break I spent some time with Sarah and found her to be not only very genuine but very sweet... An unusual combination for one who delivers hard pounding music in a gritty rock style. She told me that almost everything they do are her original compositions and though I was told that they do an occasional cover, I didn't notice any last night .. (Although that could have also had something to do with the Oatmeal Stout) So if you have a chance to see to see them I urge you to do so... Even at their standing room only venues ... It will be worth it!

PARIS TRIP BLOG Paris Day 1 … Nous partons (just barely!) et nous arrivons … Finally Arrived at the airport in plenty of time. Got through security with no problem. Flight on time and begins boarding, when... A bored French accent requests our presence at the Air France desk where they tell us. "Quelle domage madam et Monsieur, we have overbooked and so even though you bought your tickets back in freakin' October... We've gotta bump someone and since you have no air miles with us.. Guess what?... You're it!" And so... After much "discussion" we did make it on to the flight.. (And at an upgrade no less... Long story..) and 6 hours later we were in 'La Belle' France. And shortly there after we were wandering the cobblestone streets of the City of Lights. And I'm pleased to report that despite my long absence, les femes Parisian' are still tres chic and very, very thin. They are also pale and wear a perpetual expression of anger, depression and despair. However they do have a reason... But that's a story for ...Day 2 'Till then... Au revoir mes ami... Paris -Day 2… So just why are the French so thin, attractive and so unhappy about it? Well me and B didn't take long to discover the thin part... They friggin' walk about a hundred times more than us fat-ass Americans do! For instance, me and 'ma chere femme' thought we were doing good at home with our 2-3 miles a day. Ha! Since we've been in La Belle France we've been averaging 10 miles per day! And that's small freaking change to the French. They also ride bikes everywhere and move tres vite all the frickin' time. And that's why they are rail thin even though their diet and habits would kill one of us Americans inside of a month. I mean not only do they pig out on cheese, fabulous French bread, every kind of heart stopping organ meat you can imagine, and enough chain smoking ciggy's to croak a whole herd of elephants, they all seem to survive just fine. And since we've been immersing ourselves in the Gallic way we've found that one of the immediate benefits is that you can stop every 3-4 miles or so for bread, cheese, wine and beer and walk that sucker off toot freakin' suite! The other thing that we find tres interesant is that we hot blooded New Englanders are walking around in short sleeved shirts while the French are bundled up in leather coats, fur boots and the ever-present scarfs. And here's one that Barb noticed... The men are all dressed in high fashion and "wearing the colors the woman don't". Although from this old Troglodyte's perspective the woman still look good ... damn good! And then there are "clueless Gendarmes, surly shopkeepers, fantastic food, incredible wine, lines at the Louve", a war historian's dream at Les Invalides and finally ... who the freak could get lost on the way to the Eiffel Tower! Well we did! More to come as L'adventure continues... Paris... Day 3 .. In search of Napoleon, Quasimodo and a cheap beer. Found Notre Dame just fine... It's smack dab in the middle of the Seine River so pretty hard to miss. The flying buttresses and stained glass were tres magnifique but alas, no trace of Quasimodo the fabled bell ringing hunchback ... C'est la Vie On the other hand we did locate Napoleon which again wasn't hard since he's been dead for close to 200 years and ain't going anywhere since he's being held down by several tons of red granite... Which by the way is very impressive despite the fact that it looks a lot like a giant red Lego. It was actually one of my favorites as the whole place (Les Invalides) is chock full of weapons from all eras. Starting with the Greeks and Romans and right down to WWll . In fact I liked it about a hundred times more than the Louvre... Which I think in French means "la tres hot, overcrowded, less than fragrant place of long lines and longer waits.. " Here's a tip.. Order tickets through your hotel and you can avoid at least half of the wait. Here's another tip. Spring for the translated headphones (which alas we did not) and don't ever expect to learn anything from the hundreds of civil servants sitting around in every room presumably to answer questions. Problem is ... They don't! I tried all three languages in which I have a smattering. English, French and German. Nothing. The best I got was in response to, "where is the bathroom and the exit?" which elicited a Gallic grunt and a vague wave to somewhere possibly across the Seine or perhaps he was telling me to ask Quasimodo.. Which in retrospect couldn't have been any worse. Still we and several thousand other tourists did get to see the Mona Lisa. (I held my camera over my head and then watched it later) The opposite of the "Le Louvre Zoo" was a delightful wine and cheese tour that our son Chris had set up for us. We and another couple from Kentucky (Go Big Blue! ) we're taken down the back alleys and side streets of St. Germaine by a charming, perky young woman where we feasted on wine, cheese and chocolate. Now that was worth waiting for! Still to come... Versailles, Marie Antoinette's pink marble palace (the cost of which probably gave the beleaguered French peasants the notion that all royalty and aristocrats would benefit from a visit to Madam Guillotine) and of course Bistro crawling in Paris Paris... Day 5 ... Open air busses on a beautiful sunny Paris spring day but with no hat or sunscreen .. equals 'la visage rouge'. Or one beet red American tourist! Took one of the Hop-On, Hop-Off open air busses out to the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Élysées and it was gorgeous but ... I stupidly forgot my hat and sunscreen so was nicely baked by the end of the day, which meant ... Naturalement ... Lots of nice cold beer. So we stopped at one sidewalk cafe.. And then another, and another and .... Well you get the picture. We slowly worked our way up the Seine through the Latin Quarter and back to St. Germaine and thoughts of a fashionably late French dinner. Thus it was in a pleasant haze that we decided to flip the Euro as it were and try a place I spotted on line. We had been batting about .500 on restaurants, which in baseball is good but in the gastro-experience means that you've eaten a lot of bad 'soup d'onion'...And we had. But this little gem of a bistro opposite the Luxembourg Garden was a true find. The quintessential white washed brick, open beams and vaulted ceiling, shelves of wine racks with vintages just begging to be tasted and the smell of garlic and fresh bread. And we did the whole route .. from the escargot soaked in garlic butter to an amazing rack of lamb followed by white chocolate and lime. And of course all washed down by a fantastic 2003 Bordeaux. And then... Et finis... Quelle Domage And as all things must... We must return to our hum drum lives and leave behind the Parisian world of cares, bistros and brasseries. Quaint side streets and beckoning back ally's. And then of course there is the one thing that we will not miss... And let me tell you folks I am most definitely not a PC person who wants to run everyone's life, but Pleeeeze!... What is with the French and the constant chain smoking? Like most of my fellow boomers I did two packs a day in my teens, but in the 40 years since I quite I guess I've become unaccustomed to smoky cafes, 'cause let me tell you, these cafes aren't just smoky... You might wanna consider bringing you own gas mask! Seriously! And just in case you were thinking of asking... No, there is no such thing as a 'non-smoking' section. And if you can't find your waiter to order another glass of Ferme Blanc, it's 'cause he's out back having a smoke! And then there's the metro trip to the airport, where once again Air France had no seat for us! And the flight home with several hundred kids from high school French clubs. But as the French say, that mon amie is a story for une autre jour... And all in all, it was a great trip. Lots of adventures, and isn't that really what its all about? And so as Europe fades into the background... Au revoir La Belle France... jusqu'à ce que nous nous revoyions

From 2/8/13 Update from 'Storm Central'... AKA, 'Coyote Junction'. Well closing in on 18" gang but did that keep yours truly, 'the Worlds Oldest Teenager', from x-country ... Nah. When it got to about 6", just before dark, I strapped on the long back-country Track skis and went out to my ravine trail for some dopey blizzard fun. The wind was really starting to howl but it wasn't bad underneath the trees and just about the time I was thinking, "hey... This is nothing to worry about... " Yup, you got it. I was coming down a narrow trail and tried a very unwise telemark turn and caught the right outside back edge, went off the trail, over a log and into a thicket.. Winding up with my right downhill ski uphill and tangled in briers. So what happened, you may well ask (and you do, don't you?) Well I'm supposed to be a writer. So if this was a suspense tale, I'd tell how... 'As darkness slowly gathered a deep gloom fell turning the white blowing snow into a dirty grey blanket of cold, twisted cotton rags. The steady swish of the wind brushing the tree tops broken only by soft, muffled plops as clumps of snow bent pine limbs and fell from overloaded branches. I tried to free my right foot from the binding but it was no use. I'd fallen at an oblique angle and couldn't reach the release catch, not even with my pole. Too late I remembered my wife asking me to bring my cell phone. Just another in the long list of good advice I didn't take. It was then I noticed the first pair of yellow-red eyes watching me from the other side of the thicket. A raccoon? Some wandering pooch looking for a warm fire and a bowl of Puppy Chow? Not bloody likely. And now the eyes at the edge of the thicket had been joined by a second pair and as I watched, a third. And then another. A pack. Coyotes. At least I had my emergency Deer Derringer. A single shot heavy but compact pistol used by hunters to give a wounded quarry the coup de grace. It could be loaded with either a single .45 caliber slug or a .410 shotgun shell. I favored the .410. It had a nice spread and would give the pack something to think about. I heard a low growl followed by a rustling in the bushes. I felt the comforting weight of the pistol next to my chest and turned my head to the left where I could see the eyes moving, edging closer, getting ready for a rush. Time to brush 'em back. I unzipped the inside pocket and wrapped my cold fingers around the butt. I sensed rather than saw one approaching me from behind. I leaned around, cocked the hammer and fired. Click. The hammer fell on an empty shell. With a sick feeling I remembered that the last time I'd put the gun away I'd left an empty shell in the chamber, for safety sake. Safety - right. The eyes in the darkness moved closer...

Here's an article that I recently did for a magazine that focused on digital publishing and I'd like to hear your ideas on this topic... (Note, due to space constraints the article will be published in 3 parts. Here's Part 1) E-publishing and the Future of Books By Ric Wasley   (Reprinted from the March/April issue of the: IDEAlliance Bulletin)   If we were to take a snapshot of the publishing world and communications, it would reveal that the way in which we communicate ideas is exploding far beyond the ability of any single source to have a monopoly or even a handle on it. It is a classic case of what you know is out of date in the moment that you know it.   This is true in every form of communication, from casual to the most structured, and anyone who does not accept and understand this new reality ignores it at his own peril. Nowhere are those changes more profound than in the way we disseminate the written word.   The tide of change in written communications is sweeping away the old ways in a print media revolution the likes of which the world has not seen since Gutenberg invented his press more than 500 years ago. Despite all of the advances in printing, production, photography, distribution and sales over the last half-millennium, the fundamental base of the technology has remained the same: printing a word or image in ink on a piece of paper. All this has changed so quickly that many of those who have shaped the information we see and the way in which we access it still have not quite grasped how profound this change truly is.   Let’s take an example of how a typical citizen of the world has received his information over the past 572 years since Johannes Gutenberg made it possible for the average person to own books. (Before that time, books had to be hand-copied and thus far beyond the reach of the masses.) With the advent of printing, books became affordable and the ideas they contained went from being the sole province of the rich and powerful to anyone who had the price of a day’s wages. Newspapers and periodicals made news and ideas from other places available to the general population, which gradually transformed society and gave rise to the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment.   Over the next 500 years, the dissemination of the printed word got faster, better and cheaper but didn’t fundamentally change until… Enter the Internet, World Wide Web, laptop computers, smart phones, tablets and e-readers—all within the past 10 years!   On the one hand, publishers and print media can’t be blamed for being tardy in recognizing this basic change and being slow to adapt. But as with many shifts in the past, the users of the technology have embraced it quicker than much of the media that purports to serve them. Yes, it is seldom easy or pleasant to give up the position of power and influence that those who have controlled what information the populace has had access to have enjoyed since the 15th century. And it is only within the past year or so that books, magazines and newspapers have begun to realize that they have lost their ability to remain the gatekeepers of information.   The genie is out of the bottle and it can never be put back in.   What has caused this amazing revolution?   Digital Publishing !   (... to be continued)   Check back next week for Part Two of this topic and by all means, please feel free to weigh in with you own thoughts and comments R.S.W.

Very Exciting! "Shadow of Innocence" is on Kindle Select today!!
So make sure you get your FREE copy today!

http://amzn.to/z2icVn #kindle #ebooks

SHADOW OF INNOCENCE

Publication Date: October 25, 2011

In the turbulent, exciting year of 1968, "Mick" McCarthy and his pretty, petite but tough-as-nails lover, Bridget Connolly, are thrown into a tangled maze of dark secrets, drugs, sex, rock & roll...and murder.

Blair Prentiss Vanderwall, the beautiful, pampered, pseudo-hippie daughter of a wealthy socialite family summering in Newport, Rhode Island, is found dead on a beach and the last person to be seen with her is the cousin of Mick’s army buddy, Smitty.

Backed by the last few bucks from McCarthy & Son Private Investigations, Mick and Bridget fire up Mick's motorcycle and head to Newport to retrace the last weeks of Blair's life, from the marble mansions of Newport to the free-flowing, free-love hippie crash pads and smoke-filled bars on Cape Cod, and backstage at the Newport Folk Festival.

As the shadows in Blair's life begin to take on a terrifying persona, threatening all who seek to shine a light on the mystery, Mick and Bridget must ask the real question--not who would have loved to wring Blair Vanderwall's pretty little neck...but who wouldn't.

Reviews:

"Colorful and exciting. Wasley is well versed in the 1960s New England music scene (he was a folksinger and rocker), and he is able to make us feel as though we are in that time and place." --Booklist

"Here's a recipe for a page-turner: Take a moment of high American drama--the tumultuous year of 1968. Add some cool New England locations--Harvard Square and the Newport Folk festival. Throw in a wisecracking Boston detective. No, wait...make that a whole family of Boston detectives. Let Ric Wasley cook it all up for you. Then sit down and enjoy. You'll be glad you did." --William Martin, New York Times bestselling author of Back Bay

"P.I. Michael Prescott McCarthy, half Irish and half Boston Brahmin, and his partner Bridget Connolly go to Newport, RI, to rescue the cousin of his Vietnam army buddy. A killer in the tony resort is murdering people in vicious ways...Wasley uses his knowledge of music and personal experience in the Sixties to bring a certain reality to this tale." --Library Journal

"If you enjoy mystery, there's plenty to go around, action too, and if you're into sixties music the scenes will resonate all the more." --Art Tirrell, author of The Secret Ever KeepsShow More
Show Less

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Newport, Rhode Island, 1968. A headstrong, adventurous, flirty young woman is dead. Her accused killer, Cody Ewing, maintains his innocence. But his case seems hopeless until Cody's cousin calls up his best friend, private investigator (and Vietnam vet) Mick McCarthy and asks for help. Set against a raucous 1960s backdrop--the famous Newport folk festival had brought sex and drugs to the staid "rich folk" town--the novel puts Mick and his beautiful companion, Bridget, up against gangsters and a particularly nasty killer. The plotting may be a little clumsy in places, and the prose a tad clunky, but the story is also colorful and exciting. Wasley is well versed in the 1960s New England music scene (he was a folksinger and rocker), and he is able to make us feel as though we are in that time and place. Not perfect, but a lot of fun all the same. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"A page turner . . . let Ric Wasley cook it all up for you. Then sit down and enjoy. You'll be glad you did." —William Martin, New York Times bestselling author, Back Bay, Harvard Yard, and The Lost Constitution
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Product Details
Paperback: 236 pages
Publisher: Imajin Books (October 25, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1926997328
ISBN-13: 978-1926997322
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Innocence-Ric-Wasley/dp/1926997328/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

What Does It Take To get A Literary Agent In 2012?

The following is taken from a reply I posted on discussion board for published authors. I found the question about the role of agents fascinating and it got me thinking about this topic that every author is wrestling with now.

Group: Published Authors Network Discussion: What Does It Take To get A Literary Agent In 2012?
Posted by Edward

It is almost 2012, and if you want to know how bad it is out there in literary agent land, then consider this - there are about 600 serious literary agents in the United States, and out of the 600, I have reached out to 293 of them in the last three months - there have been no takers and less than a half dozen replies from agents who thought they might be interested.

Now if I was a novice, or never published aspiring writer, this would not be a surprise to anyone - but I am a leading authority in my field, and a very well established author with 7 books published between 2005 and 2011 in the US, Canada (Toronto and Montreal), England, France, Germany and Australia.

What really makes this interesting is the fact that I have been seen on television worldwide, and that I have been involved with three television pilots as a consulting producer or executive producer - one of them was for HBO - and in the next few months I will be featured, along with one of my books that is printed in the French language, in a documentary that will be airing on the largest cable TV channel in France.

Since I have never had a literary agent bring me any of my literary or television deals in my career (I always solicited and closed my own deals), I even offered to bring literary and television deals to the literary agents (all they had to do was close them) - and still not one of the agents I contacted was interested.

So what do you think about the literary agent world in 2012?

*********************************************************************************

Ric Wasley
• Interesting discussion. I'm currently published with 3 solid mid-list publishers and although I've had 2 literary agents over the past 10 years, neither of them sold anything.
My feeling is that that the new technology of e-books and POD has made them increasingly irrelevant to the bulk of today's successful authors. In fact I signed the same deal with one of my publishers as did another author with an agent.
The only difference? I didn't to give up 15% to someone for doing what I was able to do myself.

I don't see this trend changing anytime soon and my prediction is that they will gradually fade away like the buggy whip manufactures at the turn of the 19th/20th century.
Oh, I do think that some mega authors will have agents for film, TV rights etc. but within 10 years I believe the majority of agents will be gone or acting as paid publicity managers.


Ric Wasley – Author – Speaker
Mystery Writers of America and the Cape Cod Writers Group

http://www.ricwasley.com/

****************************************************

Kate Rigby • I am published (once with a traditional publisher) the rest small press and Kindle. The thing is, when I was first published in 1990 (paperback) it was a whole different world out there and the agents came to me. Though it's probably changed a lot, I'm sure there's still an element of the Catch 22, that you can't get an agent until you're published but how do you get published without an agent? To be honest, I've had little success with agents, apart from maybe the one I decided to go with after my first book was published, but when they didn't accept my follow-up book, it was back to the drawing-board so to speak. I then had another very well-known agent interested in another of my novels in 93 (again this is almost the dark ages - pre-internet almost!) and he submitted it to various publishers but none of them would 'bite'. Years later in 2005 I sent another novel to this same literary agent - not the same person, you understand, but it was the same literary agents. I was invited up to London to have lunch with a woman from this literary agent, I spent lots on train fare, though she did buy me lunch. Then she asked me to write two proposals for books over the next three months. As the deadline approached I had a bit of problem with my printer (I had no email back then) and told her they would be a bit late. Sent them a few days later and didn't hear a dickie-bird, in spite of follow up. So... I really don't have much truck with them. What are you supposed to do? Hang about months while waiting for one reply from one publisher before they submit it to another? And what if you have multiple books? You will be waiting around for ever!
*************************************************************************
Carol Jose • Ric, I agree in part with you, but only in part. Glad to know we're fellow MWA members and therefore know the process. I'd like to introduce a new angle here, as I think some of the authors participating in this discussion have not yet acquired an agent, are not sure they need one, and worse, are missing the point and order of things in the agenting process. First of all, many desired publishers will not look at unagented manuscripts, period. Mostly it's to minimize their expenses, conserve their time, and protect themselves from contractual, copyright, and plagiarism issues. "Over the transom" (unsolicited) manuscripts arrive on their doorsteps by the truckload, and they won't pay staff it would take to sort and read even one tenth of them. So yes, an agent is important in so many ways. They do the grunt work and deal realistically with the author's often outlandish expectations, before the manuscript is put into the hands of the publisher. Some auhors are so inwardly focused on their OWN perception that they've written the next hottest American best seller, they don't realize that publishers control 90% of the :"best seller" market,and dictate pretty much what the agent can do for the author. Some agents are great at foreign sales, some aren't. Some books interest foreign markets, some don't. Same with TV and Big Studio movie makers. Face it, publshers, not agents, are doing less and less for authors. Unless you are bankable from previous publications. It's in the agent's financial interest to SELL YOUR BOOK TO A PUBLISHER! They know the market. They're the sales force and have the right contacts,if they're a good agency. Publishers count on agents to weed out the wheat from the chaff for them, and eliminate quirks that could expose them to potential legal liability. Unless authors are independently wealthy, few of the comments I've read in this discussion seem aware of how difficult, costly, and time consuming self-publishing and self-selling your book on Kindle or Nook or wherever IS, including at Barnes and Noble. The public is fickle, okay CHEAP, and indifferent, in the current economy and hurry up techno world. Booming used book sales on Amazon.com render ZERO for the author or agent's pocket. Promoting your most-often-NOT-a-bestseller book, (publishers now require that unless you are a star author YOU do most of that)) takes time, money, travel, shipping costs ad nauseam. Trust me on that. Then there are the editing demands, not the help. Once a major publisher told my agent, "tell the authors to take two hundred pages out of this and we'll purchase it." Then you work like hell to take out the two hundred pages, and they don't buy it, because they've bought something else instead while you're slaving at meeting their editing demand! However, undaunted, our agent promptly sold the shorter edited manuscript to another publisher just as big, and it went through several editions and was recently rated one of the '"five best" ever, in its category by a reviewer in the Wall Street Journal. No, it wasn't a best-seller. Just a darn good book in its long shelf life. The agent served us very well, for his relatively paltry 15%. So don't overestimate your own talent in the marketing realm, and underestimate the agent's, which I see happening a lot here. This discussion has fascinated me in its many interesting facets, but also its misconceptions and misunderstanding of the industry and the publication process today. If you have a huge following you can count on buying your book, do it yourself, you'll make more return (not necessarily profits) from it. Be persistent, persuasive, but realistic about this economy and industry as it is TODAY, and try to ease up on blaming agents so heavily. "First, do no harm to yourself, by criticizing others you may need to succeed." .
**********************************************************************
Gary Tavares • There is no statistical proof or data to support the fact of having an agent as significantly different or better than doing it any other way. Many of us are convinced that we have to do things a certain way or we can't be successful. We need to find agents, if we go that route, who like your work and do not try to change your work to fit what they believe may sell. In fact, many writers stuck to what they believed in with their writing and that is why they succeeded, even though they were rejected numerous times. The movie "Red Tails" was rejected numerous times because it is a predominantly black cast and nobody thought a film like that could fly... No pun intended. It isn't even out yet but it is being considered a blockbuster. The film "The Help" was rejected over 60 times yet was the number one film for about 4 weeks. Tyler Perry was rejected numerous times by Hollywood because they did not think his genre would sell. He built a hollywood-like studio right here in Atlanta and we all know the rest. Now Atlanta is becoming a major player in the film industry and Hollywood is coming here. You ever wonder where all these agents are who have turned all these famous people away, sometimes hundreds of times? If you read the bios of most of the big time writers now you will see most of them had powerful and original works, self-published and did out of the trunk sales. I have been told many times I wouldn't be successful doing it my way, yet I like a challenge and keep on proving I can. I have a novel I am working on entitled, "Predator In The Clubhouse:The Boston Red Sox Child Molestation Story." It's a true story that has never been told. I actually got the story from a victim over 6 years ago and since have finished the screenplay. The story is much bigger than the Penn State case. The book will be out by the spring. It's all about opportunity and timing. I can assure you it will do well because it is powerful and original. When you have something powerful, original and marketable you will get the attention of the agents if that is the way you want to go. www.tavaresentertainment.net

*************************************************************
Steven Thomas • As with most things in life its all about "who you know".Agents (by and large) know the right hands to get a manuscript into. They know certain publishers which prefer certain things over others. An effective agent saves the writer from wasting his or her (didn't want to make a Ms-take here) valuable time and energy! I also know that with the advent of POD and self publishing i think the big boys in the author biz will begin to elect to go self publishing routes. They have the name and reputation that affords them that luxury and taking a 95% cut!
***************************************************************

Ric Wasley • That's true Steven and I just read a post by Lawrence Block that he had elected to take a number of his works into the realm of self publishing. Why? Because he can take a bigger slice of the pie. Then there's the young lady from the mid-west - a paranormal romance first time author who was turned down by dozens of agents only to go on and self publish. And after creating a huge following in a short period of time, has just signed a million dollar deal with a top publishing house! Hurrah for her. I think that's what happens when you truely believe in yourself !And Carol, thanks for your comment. For me personally I'm very happy with my midsized publishing houses and enjoy being able to talk one on one with my editors and publishers. And yes, I know there are some good agents out there and they can certainly be useful for film and big book deals. However I still maintain that they have lost their lofty perch as gatekeepers and arbiters of what is and is not great literature. Because now authors have the opportunity to speak directly to the reader as they never have before and those who don’t recognize that the paradigm is changing will miss a lot of opportunities over the next few years.So I’m not against agents I’m just for each writer having the opportunity of succeeding in the only arena where it should really count… with the reader
1 second ago