I Erased This Novel

That’s right. I erased it. Spent years working on it, writing three drafts of it out on paper, mind you, PAPER, and then finally got to the point where I typed it into a word processor.

As I typed the manuscript into the word processor, I threw the page I’d just finished into the trash. When the trash filled to overflowing, I threw it out. Then I’d fill it up again.

Garbage trucks came and went. Page by page, my original manuscript migrated to an anonymous landfill.

Then, one fateful afternoon, I finished typing. Done, I thought. Completed. Mission accomplished.

I knew that what I needed to do was back it up the files immediately. I put a lot of work into it, a lot of sweat and blood. The files must be protected! So, I proceeded to inexpertly do this “backup thing” and somehow in the process … I erased it.

The novel was gone. All I had left were the few pages of the last chapter, none of which at that point I had actually used. The novel, in essence, had vanished, like the soul of a loved one who’d just succumbed to eternal slumber.

I couldn’t believe it. I could not believe I’d just erased my freaking novel.

I spent about a week mourning it, and then I sat down at the word processor and thought … well, I know this story frontward and backwards by now … why don’t I just type it out again? And that’s what I did. I typed it all out, from memory, and I’ll be damned if it didn’t turn out a lot better. This time around there was no fussing and fighting with the prose, no tight wedging of things in, no forcing this or that character to do some unnatural thing for the sake of the plot. Why? Because I knew the plot already, I knew from page one EXACTLY what had to be laid out, and when. I knew the characters like they were family. I could see how they’d interact naturally, and was able to realistically portray their growth through the course of the story.

Now, I wouldn’t wish this on any writer. It was agony. But in the end it was worth it, and you know how they say things always happen for a reason.

The novel got picked up by AOL Time-Warner’s new experimental publishing company, iPublish, as one of their first three books. “iPublish” stood for “Internet Publish” because they accepted manuscripts online, and the books were to be made available in electronic and print-on-demand format and marketed on the Internet. I never did like the name “iPublish” because it sounds like “I” published it, as in, vanity press. And the rest of the publishing industry did not seem to like this new concept at all, and people have pretty much thumbed their noses at it ever since. I had an agent once, rather coldly, tell me that having a book at iPublish was not, in fact, what he considered being “published.”

Ouch.

The novel came out in August 2001, and AOL Time-Warner marketed it for about a week. It might have been longer than that, but it doesn’t seem like it. I was asked if I’d go on tour, and if I would be available for TV talk shows. Sure, I said. But besides being interviewed by the NY Times, none of that other stuff ever happened. You can probably guess why.

Next month, on September 11th, America got kicked in the crotch. The nation plunged into war, the economy tumbled, and the publishing industry went into a tail spin. AOL Time-Warner quickly pulled the plug on their little iPublish experiment, putting a lot of talented, forward-thinking people out on the streets, and canceling my contract for a second novel. Fortunately Travels was picked up by Time-Warner’s Aspect imprint, who still handles it today. So even though it says iPublish, it’s Aspect that prints it. [Aspect and Warner Books were just sold, and so now my novel is being handled by Grand Central Publishing.]

I understand a lot of people have little or no respect for POD, or “Print-On-Demand,” but I look at it this way: If this novel had been picked up by a traditional press, there would only have been a limited first run of about 1000 copies. That would have been it. Travels would have been in and out of print in the blink of an eye, and the only way you’d get it now would be to find a rare used copy (rare, because most of them would have no doubt been recycled by now). But thanks to POD, my book is still available, still on Amazon, Barnes & Noble’s, and eBay (in fact a few months ago I found a copy sitting on the shelf of a book store!) and I can continue trying to market it as long as they don’t erase the file.

So as far as I’m concerned, it’s a good thing.

And you can bet, if they ever do decide to erase it … I’ll still have a back up copy!