My new multipart series will chronicle the ups and downs of an ordinary person striving to becoming a novelist in the real world. The series will span more than five decades.
Jim ... you caught my attention with this one. I wondered if you've considered this as a truthful narrative/memoire, or an evolution of you as a writer - either as non-fiction or fiction? I'm thinking of Kerouac's 'On the road' and Salinger's 'Catcher in the rye' ... not so much from my own memories of reading those books, but from digesting so much that I've read/heard of the interpretations of their work and their respective twisted lives. I guess, what I'm trying to ask, is 'what kind of read will it be and who is the audience?' ... or 'what shelf will it occupy in the bookstores?' ... Is it a how-to for writers (an audience of which I am a part ... but not a big commercial appeal), or a 'deep-dive into the mind and life of Jim Melvin' that will have a broader appeal in terms of 'it's message' and the opportunity to use your 'reality' to support/blend with fiction, or is something else I'm not accurately guessing? Do tell, 1 inquiring mind would like to know. Cheers, Mark
Wow, Mark! This is one of the best, most thought-out comments I've ever received. Thank you. As to your questions, my journey to publication (and my relative successes and frequent failures) has been a long one - at times fun and at times fraught with frequent failures. It also spans almost 50 years, so a lot of what I'll say in the first part of the series will be outdated in some regards, though still hopefully interesting. My plan is to take my time on this and not rush it. I'll be talking about everything from my writing processes, my research, dealing with agents and publishers, and finally all of the things - including marketing - that I've learned from self-publishing my last series. As you know, I serialized "The Adventures of a Florida Boy" on Substack and have since turned it into a memoir that is currently in the hands of a publisher but that I will probably end up self-publishing by the time the smoke clears. So who knows about this one? I hope that by taking my time with it, it will gain some depth. Anyway, thanks for asking!
I enjoy your authentic tone. I am worried that your context for "hitting it big" is so twentieth-century. AI is going to wipe out that whole old model soon. I think you will make it big if you shift your thinking about what that means now.
Take your time, but I'm really looking forward to the next part. And I agree with Mark, just from the first small piece this feels like an intriguing memoir.
Jim ... you caught my attention with this one. I wondered if you've considered this as a truthful narrative/memoire, or an evolution of you as a writer - either as non-fiction or fiction? I'm thinking of Kerouac's 'On the road' and Salinger's 'Catcher in the rye' ... not so much from my own memories of reading those books, but from digesting so much that I've read/heard of the interpretations of their work and their respective twisted lives. I guess, what I'm trying to ask, is 'what kind of read will it be and who is the audience?' ... or 'what shelf will it occupy in the bookstores?' ... Is it a how-to for writers (an audience of which I am a part ... but not a big commercial appeal), or a 'deep-dive into the mind and life of Jim Melvin' that will have a broader appeal in terms of 'it's message' and the opportunity to use your 'reality' to support/blend with fiction, or is something else I'm not accurately guessing? Do tell, 1 inquiring mind would like to know. Cheers, Mark
Wow, Mark! This is one of the best, most thought-out comments I've ever received. Thank you. As to your questions, my journey to publication (and my relative successes and frequent failures) has been a long one - at times fun and at times fraught with frequent failures. It also spans almost 50 years, so a lot of what I'll say in the first part of the series will be outdated in some regards, though still hopefully interesting. My plan is to take my time on this and not rush it. I'll be talking about everything from my writing processes, my research, dealing with agents and publishers, and finally all of the things - including marketing - that I've learned from self-publishing my last series. As you know, I serialized "The Adventures of a Florida Boy" on Substack and have since turned it into a memoir that is currently in the hands of a publisher but that I will probably end up self-publishing by the time the smoke clears. So who knows about this one? I hope that by taking my time with it, it will gain some depth. Anyway, thanks for asking!
I think Mark's comment is on point. Looking forward to read this series.
I enjoy your authentic tone. I am worried that your context for "hitting it big" is so twentieth-century. AI is going to wipe out that whole old model soon. I think you will make it big if you shift your thinking about what that means now.
I'm looking forward to your writing series as well. I'll need to get your cell so that I can call you ten times a day with tech questions. 😀
Take your time, but I'm really looking forward to the next part. And I agree with Mark, just from the first small piece this feels like an intriguing memoir.