It's really the definition of starving artist, but it is cool to see even a tiny return on so much work. If you haven't checked out Downtown Dandelions yet, what are you waiting for? You can check out a preview for free.

So for those who've read Downtown Dandelions (and if you haven't, we're only talking about the beginning, so go grab the free PDF, read a few pages, and join the discussion), what do you think of the beginning?

But that doesn't mean it makes for a great opening. Effectively the opening is entirely character driven. You get a bunch of observations about life, and while interesting, I'm not sure that's the best hook. What do you think? Did the first chapter work? Were you hooked? Or did it take you longer to get really hooked?

I've always felt that chapter 3 is where the story really sinks its teeth into you. You get a lot of story movement with Sedgewick interacting with Connor, and then, of course, Allison is introduced. I've wondered if it'd be better to start with chapter 3 (maybe tweak things around a bit so we can still have the bus scene as an intro). Start with Sedgewick's interaction with Connor (which says just as much, if not more, about Sedgewick than following him home from the bus stop) and then introduce Allison.

Any thoughts? Any other ideas? Lay it on me.

• Is he believable?
  
• Does his stutter drive you nuts, or does it work?
  
• One reader commented that they wanted to know the origin of his name--does that matter to anyone else?
  
• The same reader wanted to know more about his past. I like the mystery of his past where bits and pieces of it are revealed. What say you: more or less history?
  
• Sedgewick is one of my favorite characters, so I'm hesitant to change anything about him. But lay it on me--is he up to the task of carrying the novel (since that's really what he has to do)?

Allison

• Is she believable?
  
• In my mind she is the least original, defined character. Does she come across as undefined? Does she need to be drawn with firmer, more intentional strokes?
  
• Is her handling of her mother's death believable?

Gertrude (Sedgewick's grandmother)

• Is she believable?
  
• Does she come across as the every-grandma, or is her character unique?
  
• Did you find yourself wanting more of the grandmother?
  
• Anybody else hate the name Gertrude?

Charles

• Is he believable?
  
• Does his sing-songy rhyming habit work for you or grate on you?
  
• Is he too much of the wise guru? Or does he give Sedgewick enough room to figure things out for himself?

Feel free to dive in and say what you think in the comments. These are characters, not me, so feel free to expose their flaws and mock them if need be.

Thanks.

Seth Godin comments that being #1 isn't what it used to be, pointing out that selling 5,000 copies of a hardcover novel in one week could land you at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. 5,000 copies? That almost sounds easy.

(examples follow after the jump which aren't plot spoilers, but I guess could be construed as spoilers of sort. So be ye warned.)

Later Sedgewick sees a chalk drawing signed by Grace. He comments that it’s the name of a girl and a thought that changed the world (taken almost verbatim from U2’s “Grace”). I felt guilty about that one and immediately gave credit to U2, though it comes across as clunky.

At another point one of the characters listens to country music, and really wanted to borrow the line from Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Xander’s been turned down by Buffy and goes home to mope and listen to country music, “The music of pain.” Can I just borrow a line like that alluding to Buffy, or is that plagiarism?

(thanks to another one of my heroes, Jeremy Keillor, for sharing the love)

-Malcolm Gladwell, author of the bestselling The Tipping Point and the newly released Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, brushing off comments about his impact (from Fast Company, January 2005).

Let's look at my potential haul from this attempt at self-publishing.

Now when you start adding up the people who say they want a copy, it starts to look rather pathetic. There's my parents. My grandparents. My in-laws. We're up to what, $12? Mostly based on guilt and duty.

Of course I've got some marketing savvy up my sleeve, so I e-mailed a whole bunch of people who expressed some mild degree of interest in the fact that I wrote a book (and some who could care less), and told them that the book was now available. That e-mail went out to 95 people.

Let's take the best case scenario: 100 people buy a copy of the book. We'll ignore the fact that the e-mail bounced back from a hand full of addresses. And we'll ignore the fact that most of the people on that list won't buy a copy for whatever reason (and I don't really expect them to buy a copy; they supported me in writing the book, and that's more than I could ask for in the first place).

So do the math: 100 implausible purchases nets me $400. That should just about take care of my January heating bill. Woohoo!

It's not a lot of money, especially considering it took me a very concentrated 20 days to write the book, countless hours of sub-par editing and proofing, more hours of design and layout, etc.

In the end it's not a very profit-driven venture. I can't exactly quit my day job and become a full time novelist.

These are the economic realities of publishing. To make a living you have to get thousands and thousands of people to buy your book. Which is why there are very few full time authors. Yet I'd venture that everyone of us does these kinds of calculations in a dreamish fantasy to hope that just maybe we can make it.

Sales as of today: Three. See what I mean?
(though don't think I'm ungrateful. Those three people? My heroes.)

I've also been told you can often find online coupon codes just by using Google.

Fortunately, I have enough ethics not to try that one. Unfortunately, I'm not so ethical that the idea didn't cross my mind.

Self-publishing, especially in the Internet age is very much like that. Though I suppose it is rather easy to tell what's worthwhile and what should never have been published. The Internet is full of self-publishing and print on demand (POD) success stories (including such names as Margaret Atwood, Louis L'Amour and the creator of Legally Blonde, Amanda Brown), though I suppose you have to take them with a grain of salt.

I'm giving it a shot simply for the thrill of seeing my book sitting on the shelf. And then a few folks said they wanted to buy a copy, and who am I to stop them?

The cheaper paperback is $12.99 and comes from Lulu.com. The nicer version is $17.99 and comes from Cafepress.com. I get the same royalty from both versions (about $4.00), so you just have to decide which version is for you. Cheapskates should go with Lulu, those who care about aesthetics should go with Cafepress. I'm offering multiple versions because I couldn't decide between cheaper and uglier, or more expensive but nicer. I'll make you decide.

You can also download a PDF preview at no cost just to check it out. If you're really a cheapskate and you just want to read the PDF version (this would be me), I ask that you make an appropriate donation. I will consider in-depth feedback or telling lots of people about the novel as a proper donation.

"If you don't want to work your ass off, you have no business trying to write well." -Stephen King (On Writing Well, 144)

"Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." - William Faulkner

"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." - E.L. Doctorow

"When I write, I feel like an armless legless man with a crayon in his mouth." - Kurt Vonnegut

"Most editors are failed writers—but so are most writers." - T.S. Eliot

"Writing can give you what having a baby can give you: it can get you to start paying attention, can help you soften, can wake you up. But publishing won't do any of those things; you'll never get in that way." - Anne Lamott (Bird By Bird)

"The first draft of anything is shit." - Earnest Hemingway

And what could quite possibly be my motto for the month of November:

"Don't be afraid of your material or your past. Be afraid of wasting any more time obsessing about how you look and how people see you. Be afraid of not getting your writing done." - Anne Lamott (Bird By Bird)

Or another good one:

"You simply keep putting down one damn word after the other, as you hear them, as they come to you." - Anne Lamott (Bird By Bird)

This blog is an attempt to make my misery public and for some odd reason share the results with the world. Essentially, it's yet another weapon in my growing arsenal of persuassion to keep at this month of insanity. I shall accomplish 50,000 words in 30 days and call myself a novelist. There's no backing out now. You can't make a web site about the attempt and then not come through. That's what I keep telling myself.

I've always wanted to write a novel. But it never happens. I can definitely call myself a writer. I've got the degree, the day job, the bylines. But writing a book has always stood as the ultimate pinnacle. A novel is the ultimate confirmation that, yes, I am a writer. It's a badge of honor. A symbol of pride. And it's also shit.

Anne Lamott has said that publication is shit, and I continually try to remind myself of that. Yet the desire exists.

And yet I never have the motivation to make it happen. Glancing through the writing category of my personal blog is rather revealing:

• March 19, 2001: I want to write a book
• March 31, 2001: I've started writing a book
• May 7, 2001: Book by 32=beard & cooky
• January 4, 2002: More Whining About Wanting to Write a Book
• August 8, 2002: I Still Want to Write a Book
• March 21, 2003: Publication is Shit
• April 29, 2004: Why Aren't I Writing a Book?
• May 9, 2004: One novel. 58 hours.
• May 13, 2004: No 58-Hour Writing Spree--Yet.
• October 8, 2004: November Rain

Which finally brings us to National Novel Writing Month. The idea is to give yourself a difficult yet doable deadline so you can make this thing happen. I'm tired of saying I'm going to do it. It's time to actually do it.

Part of the joy of writing it in 30 days is that you banish your inner-editor. That results in a lot of crap, but it also lets some brilliance shine through (hopefully). So let's just deal with the crap and hope enough brilliance comes through to make it all worthwhile.

And best of all, when it's all said and done, I can finally stick my nose in the air and call myself a novelist. Stupid? Yes. But so is pretending writing a book is the greatest thing ever and never actually trying it.

My intentions with this blog are simply to post my writing for the day and maybe a word count update. Don't look for commentary, because that's time I could be putting towards my word count. Enjoy what you see, but be forewarned: it's crap. I know it. Feel free to comment or leave encouragement, but know that I probably won't take the time to respond. Don't feel free to critique because I definitely won't have time for that. I already know it's crap, I don't need you telling me so. This blog is more for me than it is for you.

We clear? Good.