Stealing Dreams
Staff Writer: Theresa Chaze
I hit the critical mass this past week and had a melt down. It had been coming for a long time. Some of it was my responsibility; some of it was a reaction to others’ behavior. It came together this week when I realized that once again I allowed another to take advantage of me. Like so many writers, I not only dreamed but worked very hard to build a writing career. But I’ve learned over the years that there are many unethical people who make pledges and promises of success, only their words are merely illusions and misdirection; like the carrot before the horse, they never really follow though on their agreements and the promised success remains a fantasy.
Ever since I was eleven years old, I wanted to write. It started with a poem that I wrote as a Mother’s Day gift. It was amazing how the words flowed out and how easy it was to paint images. I submitted it to the magazine Biscuits and Hyacinths. I did everything wrong. It was handwritten with spelling mistakes. But the editor sent me the nicest note. It was a rejection, but it was done in such a way that it kept me writing. Through the decades, the poem has been lost, but I still have fond memories of the editor who toke the time to make a kid feel important. Later in my teens, I turned to short stories with mystical plots and strong women. Just out of high school, I started my first novel. Several chapters in, I realized that I was over my head and went on to college. Majoring in English and later in television production, I learned exactly how little I knew. The only constant was writing. The first novel was set aside and other projects started. Whereas the television classes taught me what it was like to see life more visually; the theatre classes taught me how to project emotions not only on the stage, but how to put them on the page in such a way that others could feel them as well. I earned Bachelor degrees in English and Video Production with a minor in Theatre.
Within a few weeks, I got a job at an independent TV station. A year later, I moved on to another station. Both jobs took a great deal of time and left little for writing, yet I still found time even if I had to give up hours of sleep. The play that I wrote had an adjudicated reading at a local theatre. It received fairly good reviews, but I needed to work on my dialogue. It seemed I was prone to long winded speeches. . My job at the station helped me improve my writing by allowing me to listen to the dialogue others had written. I continued to write short stories and submit them, but the next big project was a screenplay called Eye of Ra. It was quickly followed by Never Can Say Good-bye.
I started looking for an agent. The owner of the Pegasus Agency in Florida answered my query letter. He said he would like to read my work, however there would be a seventy-five dollar reading fee. It hurt the budget but I sent him the check. After a few weeks, he called and wanted to represent it. He also wanted to read the second, but would do so without a second fee. I thought I was in. Weeks passed without a phone call or letter so I contacted him for updates. At first, he did return my phone calls, but he never had any information to give me about where the scripts were sent or who had read them. After about six months and many unreturned phone calls, I finally realized I had been had. But I refused to give up. Instead I started contacting new agents and producers directly.
I saw the movie Stargate. Viveca Lindfors would have been perfect for one character in Eye of Ra. I set out to find her. By contacting many of her co-stars, I eventually made connected with her manager, Joyce Chase. She agreed to read my scripts. Joyce said they were better than most she had read and agreed to show them to Viveca. Unfortunately Viveca died. My search continued.
Eventually I upgraded from a word processor to my first computer; it helped me with my editing problems; it has always been my biggest challenge. I have a tendency, like many writers, to see what is in my head instead of what is on the page. Characterization and plots are easy for me, but finding my own errors has always been difficult. Part of the problem was my perception of reality. I thought that writers wrote and editors edited; it was my belief that it was the combined talents of both that made the work brilliant. It was the reason editors were credited on the inside of the book for the work they had done. However that is an out-dated way of thinking. Writers are expected to do both; what editors now do is a mystery to me.
In the late nineties, a short story about a woman buying a house turned into a novel. Originally titled, Dragon’s New Home, it became story about a woman on a spiritual path being drawn in to a local conflicted. An ebook company contacted me about electronically publishing it after I filed for the US copyright. I didn’t know enough even to be able to ask the right questions. It was the first publishing disaster. The contract was for an indefinite period of time; signing it was not my brightest moments. Ebooks were in their infancy and selling them was an uphill battle. Even Stephan King, with all his fame, couldn’t be successful with his ebook. Part of the problem was my inexperience in marketing and promotion; I didn’t know how to let the world know Dragon’s New Home existed or how they could buy it; the publisher was no help. Eventually we ended our association.
A few months later, Publish America contacted me. They claimed to be a traditional publisher who would be doing line-by-line editing and full promotion to bookstores. The contract was for seven years. Their promises sounded really good. I signed with them. It was another mistake. The editing was non existent and the corrections I made on the proof never made it into the final product. From the beginning, I realized that I would be doing most of the work myself. I contact reviewers and the media. It received good reviews, with the only consistent negative comment being about the bad editing. Even though I contacted hundreds of bookstores and had very good reviews, sales were low because of the price, the non-return policy and stores inability to reach the publisher to place orders. When I complained, PA first ignored me, but when I persisted with my questions they became abusive and hostile. Quickly I learned I was not the only one to be taken in by them. But after two years and many letters to the media and politicians, I was released from the contract after other authors started to winning lawsuits.
While I was attempting to free Dragon’s New Home, I finished the sequel and called it, Dragon Domain. It was a continuation of the story and I realized there was a third yet to be written. My screenplay, Never Can Say Good-bye, made the first cut in the Greenlight Project; it became one of a thousand and received good reviews, however it didn’t go any future. My computer skills also increased, as did my ability to surf the net. Through my past publishing challenges and by working with other authors, I learned how to promote my work more efficiently. I also joined the staff of the ezine, Mystic Witch. I also published many articles and short stories both on and off line.
After Dragon Domain was finished, I returned my attention to Dragon’s New Home. At the time, it was still under contract to Publish America and I decided to re-write it, adding to it and changing the title to Awakening the Dragon. It became a much better book with stronger characters and a more detailed plot. Looking back it should have never been published as it was. Although it was a good story with unique characters, it could have been better. The rewrite added more depth and dimension to both.
When Spiral Publishing offered me a contract for Dragon Domain, I was more prepared. After it was accepted, I started collecting my promotional materials and making contact lists. Spiral set the release date before Christmas; I thought three months was a little quick, but Michele assured me it could be done. The end of November I started asking for the proofs and the cover. They told me both were nearly finished, yet they never sent them to me. In mid-December, a cover was sent. It had nothing to do with the story. It looked like the artist spent five minutes on it. It was a black cover with vague outlines of dragons. I rejected it and was told another would be put together. The Christmas deadline came and went. I called and emailed. Eventually the editor contacted me and reset the release for mid-January. Still they hadn’t sent the proofs, nor did it have a cover. In mid-February, the first sixteen chapters of the proof for Dragon’s Domain was emailed to me. The editing was terrible. I complained about it, however I was ignored. The end of February the rest of the proof arrived. The editing was even worse. The best example is that spurted was changed to spirited, so one of the characters had “blood spirited” from his lip. Again I complained, however my messages and emails went unanswered. I sent certified letters to get my promotional cups and pens returned. The editor told me that all my material had been send to Michelle’s new address in Wisconsin. I only had the Florida business address and he wouldn’t give me her new one. Michelle finally called me; she didn’t like the tone of my emails. By that time I had enough and suggested we a part company. We made arrangements for my promotional material to be returned at my expense. She emailed the release the same day. About a month later, the certified letter I sent to the Florida address was retuned as undeliverable; it seems Michelle never arrange to have the mail forwarded.
Frustrated and angry, I again started looking for another publisher. Through an acquaintance, I was lead to a subsidy publisher, Pagefree. This was different than the others. I would be paying to have my novels available. It was a print on demand publisher, so the cost would be a little higher than a traditional publisher. However, they offered a “special”; if you paid by a certain date the level one edit would be free. A level one edited including punctuation, spelling and grammar. I was hesitant. In the past, my experiences hadn’t been good. However, after reading their contact and with the recommendations of others, I paid to have both novels published.
.About six weeks later, I received the proofs for Dragon Domain. Again there were major editing errors. Some of them were mine; many were punctuation and grammar errors that should have been taken care of by the level one edit. I emailed the corrections. At first they were going to charge me for the additional changes, but they changed their minds. A couple of weeks past and I asked about Awakening the Dragon’s proofs; they told me that they would be sent soon. A few days later, the corrected proof of Dragon Domain was sent. There were many of the same kind of errors. I complained about the editing. The next day Kim sent an updated proof of Dragon Domain, but I was so disheartened and frustrated that I approved it without looking at it.
The next day I printed the Awakening the Dragon proof, but took a couple of days before I started working on it; I needed to regain perspective. Awakening the Dragon had the same kind of errors as did Dragon Domain. Most of them would have been fixed by a simple spell check that included the grammar programming. I sent 133 corrections. Kim claimed that Awakening the Dragon had been run through the spell check and that she had personally fixed many errors. She said they had gone beyond the basic edit and had nearly done a full edit. Yet there were still many basic errors both in the grammar, punctuation and the format of the novel. After much discussion and a little drama, I decided to pull the book and resubmit after it had been re-edited. The first proof had formatting errors; I submitted the corrections. However, when I received the second proof, I only check to see that original mistakes were corrected. They had been and both books finally went onto the art stage. The art looked good first try. A week later, both books were available. I ordered copies so I could send out in promotional packages. When the books arrived, to my shock and dismay Awakening the Dragon again had formatting errors. When Pagefree made the original corrections, they didn’t check to see how it affected the rest of the book. Six chapters had two lines off where the chapter title and one line of text didn’t start at the top of the page. I contacted Pagefree. Their position was that the mistake was mine since I didn’t full check the second proof before approving it. Granted I trusted them to be professional enough to complete the format corrections; that was my mistake. For a fee, they were willing to fix the errors. Even if I had the resources to pay them, who knows what other mistakes would be added in the process. The content is the author’s responsibility; the format is the responsibility of the publisher. The mistakes will make me look bad, but not as much as the publisher.
There were two reasons there were so many errors on my part. I had gotten a new computer with XP inside of ME. I hadn’t realized that the spell checker of the word processing system needed to be altered to include checking the grammar. I thought it was being done, but it wasn’t. It was my responsibility to make sure my system was performing properly, however my lack of computer experience kept me from knowing what to look for. But the major problem was with me; ever since Dragon’s New Home was released I was working 70-80 hours a week between writing, promotion and the rice bowl job. When a person becomes exhausted, it’s harder to focus and you are more prone to making mistakes. These are not excuses, but an explanation of my situation.
However the publishers do not have that excuse for their errors. All three looked for the cheap, easy ways to publish. In some cases, it was simple greed. They were not financially invested so they took no care in what kind of product they released. This is the primary reason that print on demand publishers have such a bad reputation. In many cases, their releases are poorly crafted and of bad quality both in content and printing. They take no care in what they produce, because their only interest is financial. They make fantastic promises, but never carry through on them. They prey on writers’ dreams by making promises only to weasel out of them, leaving the writer disillusioned. In the first to publishers, I was not financially taken, however, Pagefree cost me money.
What I’ve learned over the past few years is that if you don’t believe in your work, no one else will either. This means not only do you have to do your best in writing and editing, but you also have to be willing to fight for it in spite of what others say. If you back down and not accept the best, you give others control over your career. On the other hand, you do need to listen to honest criticism in order to make your work stronger and more creative. It’s the balance that makes a great writer. Depending on others to clean up your mistakes makes you vulnerable; no one cares about your project more than you. Putting the time and effort into making it as strong, clean as possible will make others take you more seriously. Too many technical errors demonstrate that you don’t have enough interest to do the busy work, so why should anyone else put the time in it either. Computer programs are great, but they don’t catch everything. Plot or character mistakes they don’t even acknowledge. Writing partners or groups are a good way to catch the boo-boos on this level. They can also help give support, tissues, and the kick in the butt when needed
Currently, I am doing the promotions for both novels and praying that by the time the reader reaches the error they are so caught up in the story, they won‘t matter. I also have a screenplay up for two competitions and several spec articles out. The new novel is well on the way. I am also doing the research for the third in the Dragon Clan Trilogy. The dream didn’t die, nor was it stolen; it was just going through growing pains. ***
***As a PS I would like to add that Never Can Say Good Bye was one of the winners of the 2006 Gloria Film Festival.