My First Book Debuts

my surprise

odd writing habits

Writing a book is not like cramming for an exam. It's not an all-nighter. You need to pace yourself.

For me, that's literal. I run and write.

It looks odd, and I always curl my fingers around my Olympus V-10 digital voice recorder so no one sees. I hope they think I'm holding my iPod. As I run (and this gets trickier the later in the day because there are more people around, and I get self-conscious), I put the recorder to my mouth and begin emoting words. If the sidewalk gets too crowded, I run in the alleys.

If you know anything about speech-language pathology, you know that movement jars a body's vestibular system, which is in the inner ear and includes the snail-shaped cochlea, contributes to a person's awareness about his body and language development. That's why they put kids in therapy swings and try to get them to talk. It works with adults, too.

I also run and write because I have so little time during the regular day to focus on this art—work, kids, general self-care take up the rest of my day, which begins at 4:30 a.m. I'm so used to getting up that early that I can't sleep in, and I don't know what that means anymore.

Whatever you do to stay the course to finishing your writing project, the best advice I can give is to stick with it. If you write 250 words a day at the end of a month you'll have written 7,500 words. Aim for a book length of 60,000 words, and you'll be done in a year (not counting all the rewrites).

NEXT MONDAY: What should an author's website include

may I edit you?

using book-editing services

You hear stories about the big publishing houses not paying enough attention to an author's writing and that the editing isn't as good as it used to be. That thought scared me into thinking I better find an outside party to edit my chapters as I was going through the process of writing them.

You wonder about online book-editing services. Are they any good? What level of service do I need? How much do they cost? How do I decide.

I was faced with those very same questions when I finished a couple chapters of my book. I googled "book editing," and came across a worthwhile service, book-editing.com. I had finished two chapters and sent an email. Two potential editors responded. From their bios, both were highly qualified.

They asked me what level of service I wanted. I said I didn't know. I didn't know whether I needed a copy edit or a more substantial structural edit. I asked them to decide. They asked to see a writing sample and did a sample copy edit. Both said that's all I needed. The copy editing was superb, but I had a hard time deciding, and it wasn't because of the price. One charged 2 cents a word; the other 3 cents a word, which I felt was reasonable. I had also contacted other services, and their rates varied, from $90 an hour to $175 an hour.

At book-editing.com, I asked the editors if they'd point out deficiencies in structure or more substantial writing problems as they read through the manuscript. They said editing was a different level of service than copy editing and would cost more. I felt confused because I didn't understand how an editor would copy edit and not point out larger problems. I had been a copy editor for The Washington Post, and the copy desk would always tell reporters if there were "holes."

That is when I took an advance novel writing course. I liked my writing teacher so much that I asked her to help. Her fee was reasonable, and I trusted that she'd help with the structure of my book. Writing 60,000 involves a much different pace than writing a magazine piece.

If you don't have a mentor and are left with using a book-editing service, wait until you have finished your manuscript. While one chapter may need a copy edit, you'll want to see how that chapter fits in with the rest of your book.

You may find, as I did, that you'll need to delete material to reduce the word count, which will involve both editing and rewriting. I had promised 60,000 words but turned in 88,000 words. It's okay to run over, but the run over better be darn good. I got it down to 64,000 words.

The word count is important because your publishing house has estimated its production costs based on trim size (the dimensions of your book) and page count.

FRIDAY: Tips for researching your book online

another rewrite?

how many times is enough

Answer: As many times as your editor tells you. Honestly, that is the truth.

To keep revisions from your editor at a minimum, you should be revising your book through another set of eyes (not your friends) before you turn it in. Friends are not professional writers and don't know how to offer constructive criticism. Professionals who are not professional writers are also poor choices. Use them to check facts or review tone, especially if it's a sensitive topic.

That leaves you with either finding a mentor who is a professional writer, or hiring your own editor before you show it to your editor at the publishing house that bought your book. Both may eat up your advance, but how could you turn in a product without an expert writer looking over its structure? To me that would be like putting on makeup without looking into the mirror.

I can't stress enough how important the structure of your book is as well as the framing of each chapter. How you frame each chapter determines whether a reader will continue or even start to read your book, and the structure of the book is, well, need I say anymore. If the structure is faulty, your book will fall apart like the London bridge. I found a mentor after deciding my book needed more than a copy edit. She taught a writing class at a local writer's center in my area. I took her class first.

Use your chapter synopses and sample chapters as your guideposts. I admit, I had done that, or at least so I thought. When I turned in my book, I had to revise it yet again because I emphasized the memoir portion of my book rather than the prescriptive advice. Let's just say there wasn't a balance between them. I grumbled because I had been working on this manuscript for about a year and a half, and my mentor had read over everything. We thought we had it in pretty good shape. Lesson: Even when you think you're following your blueprint, you still might get sidetracked.

Because you'll go through countless revisions, you'll need to stay organized. I wish I had remained better organized with the way I named my files. They got to be all over the place because I didn't want to lose track of my latest version. There was a simple solution: Name your file and at the end put v1. Change it to v2 the next time you edit it and so on. If someone else is editing along the way, have that person put v2_JT (their initials) at the end. That way you wouldn't have countless revisions because you'd have a record, if any one is counting.

If you're throwing up your hands in a cry of help, there are reputable online services that can help. Book-Editing Associates is one of them. I will talk more about this service tomorrow.

THURSDAY: book-editing services: what level of service do you need?

disclosing your secrets

Two years ago, I was listening to NPR radio host Jacki Lyden interview author Richard McCann about his new book, Mother of Sorrows, part autobiography, part novel about his early years. McCann said something that continues to stick in my mind when he talked about the process of writing his book. He said to get people to read your book you need to disclose your secrets.

His comment was particularly relevent to me at the time because I had just embarked on writing my book proposal on Act Early Against Autism, which had started out as Almost Normal. The book blends memoir and prescriptive advice about recovering my son, Leo, from autism.

I had many secrets to disclose but whether I should reveal them to the larger world, well, I just wasn't sure how far I wanted to go. Should I disclose my drinking on days when Leo threw a gigantic tantrum or played in separate rooms during a play date? Should I disclose that my relationship with my husband became less passionate? Should I disclose that my husband's father committed suicide and then a few years later his step-brother met the same fate? Should I disclose that we went through bankruptcy—a messy situation exacerbated by the cost of Leo's intervention program ($1,000 a week)? And, should I even be writing this book, disclosing the biggest secret of all—that my son was diagnosed with autism? How will this impact him as he matures and comes to understand?

The initial book proposal contained all my secrets, except the drinking and the bankruptcy. I had also (and here's another secret) left out that my mother told me to get an abortion after we disclosed his diagnosis to her. In the end, after many edits, I kept that secret out of the book because it was too big of a pot boiler. But the other secrets are all there.

While I still haven't resolved how Leo will eventually react to the book, my agent encouraged me to mention the bankruptcy because that is public record, and if I didn't mention it then that could come out after the book was published. Getting my husband on board with that required many conversations.

As you write your book, especially a memoir, you will need to tackle these issues. I urge you to divulge your secrets. It will make your book stronger, more enticing to read. Your chances of upsetting people, possibly relatives, is high. But it's your book and your story—tell it!

For expert guidance on writing your book proposal, I highly recommend Write the Perfect Book Proposal: 10 Ideas that Sold and Why by Jeff Herman and Deborah Levine Herman. What makes this hands-on book stand out is that it contains real-life examples of book proposals and points out why they sold.

TUESDAY: My expert tips on writing the perfect book proposal