February 23, 2012

Made It Moment: Mike Nettleton

Filed under: Made It Moments — jenny @ 1:01 pm

Shotgun Start

The first line of Mike Nettleton’s Made It Moment contains some of the truest words I’ve ever read about this writing life. And the last paragraph gave me chills. You couldn’t ask for much more out of a Moment, but Mike gives us more. Like the roller coaster metaphor he used in this piece, Mike takes us on a hairpin ride from the bad old days of snail mail publishing–did I ever confess to you guys that I FedExed my queries out of some mistaken belief that anything I might do would require urgency?–through the very first halting days of e publishing, to the Moment that awaited him at the end of the ride.

Mike Nettleton

Validation, for a writer, is like sugar water to a hummingbird. You need constant nourishment, since you’re devouring your own body weight in ego every time you sit down and try to create. You may be offered sustenance by your friends, your writing group, or even your own internal critic who concedes, occasionally, that you’ve penned something that doesn’t immediately need to find a place in the circular file. But ultimately, to build the strength to go on, you have to make a pitch to an agent or publisher.

I equate it to buying an “E” ticket for the amusement park ride of your hopes, dreams, and ambitions. Once you’ve put that clever, well crafted query in the mail, you’re winding through the turnstiles to take your turn. After handing over your ticket to the slightly disreputable carny with his hand on the lever of The Wolverine of Love (or insert your favorite high-altitude coaster ride name here), you clamber into the tiny car, pull the safety bar across your lap, and start the climb. Step by clackety-clack step you ascend, palms sweating, dizzy and fighting the urge to stand up and scream—“Stop, I want to get off.”

The process seems to take forever: weeks; months; a year or more. And then…
The mailman drops that magic envelope in your box. The one with the return address from Mr. or Ms. high-powered, let’s-auction-it-for-a-huge-advance, it’ll-make-a-great-movie-with-Brad-and-Angelina, agent. With a final click or clack the roller-coaster car pauses at the peak, its nose hanging over the edge, poised for what comes next.

With trembling hands, you reach for whatever’s nearby to slit the envelope open: a letter opener, a butter knife, a fingernail, the schnauzer’s paw. A single sheet emerges from its nest—you open it to read:

Dear Mr. or Ms. Earnest Writer:

Not for us.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYagh !!!!!

You’re hurtling at a million miles an hour down the tracks toward oblivion. Heart and various and sundry other internal organs are in your throat. Your dreams of instant fame and recognition are soon to be dashed at the bottom. You’ll never recover.

But you do. And you write again and buy another ticket for the ride.

In the mid-nineties, my wife and unindicted co-conspirator Carolyn J. Rose and I interested a highly-regarded New York agent, Vicky Bijur in our jointly written farcical mystery The Hard Karma Shuffle. She loved the book, knew she could sell it and urged us to begin writing a sequel, which we did. After a series of nice “no thank yous” from various publishers, she landed us a deal with the startup Ebook division of Time-Warner. Despite the fact we had no clue what an Ebook was and nobody was talking six-figure (or even two-figure) advance, we were ecstatic. The Wolverine had reached the crest and was teetering there.

And then, somehow, the weight shifted to the downhill side of the ride. Time-Warner folded the new division and wasn’t interested in publishing Hard Karma in paperback. Vicky didn’t much like the sequel we’d submitted. Soon, nicely, she notified us she didn’t think it would be fruitful to continue the relationship.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYagh !!!!!

Since that time Carolyn has been published by Five Star and received a small advance and I had Shotgun Start taken around to the big publishers by an Atlanta agency, to no avail. I grew tired of the carnival, put the book away for 4 years, and essentially didn’t submit anything to anyone.

But then, with a little gentle but insistent urging by my wife, I pulled the book out, cut 50,000 words, strengthened some characters and plot lines and submitted it to Ken Lewis of Krill Press who published our jointly written books The Big Grabowski and Sometimes a Great Commotion. His reaction was immediate and gratifying. He thought it was a terrific book and despite thinking it belonged with a larger press, wanted to publish it. We agreed, he came up with a killer cover, and it’s now out in trade paperback and (here’s a little irony) as an Ebook.

But the real “Made it Moment” came when I began seeing sales on Amazon and at the book fairs we attended. They’re not overwhelming, but they are growing and I have high hopes I can duplicate Carolyn’s success story and sell thousands of Kindle and Nook versions to readers. I even got a fan email from a reader recently.

Ultimately, making it means something different now than it did when I started. My writing won’t make me rich and famous, but that’s not the point, really. What I want is for people to read what I’ve written. And that’s happening. People I don’t know, people who have no stake in stroking my ego are, as we speak, smiling at one of my jokes or rooting for Neal Egan to drop-kick his ex-wife to the curb. Perhaps I’ll help them escape from the pressures of their day-to-day life for a few hours.

And the roller coaster ride has shut down for the season.

Mike Nettleton is a retired radio personality who keeps busy writing mystery novels, playing golf, and walking a little white Maltese. He’s the author or co-author of six books including the hard-boiled Neal Egan detective novel Shotgun Start. He’s currently at work on a sequel. Mike is the two-time winner of the Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association short story competition and has received national recognition for several advertising campaigns. His wife, Carolyn, is his fiction collaborator and he has a son, Rob, who is a webcasting specialist with Intel.






13 Comments »

  1. Oh goodness, I have just laughed coffee all over myself! What a great post! Good luck with your book, I am certainly going to buy one!

    Comment by Connie J Jasperson — February 23, 2012 @ 2:24 pm

  2. Love this Moment!

    Comment by Judy — February 23, 2012 @ 2:25 pm

  3. Wonderful! Congratulations.

    Comment by SavvyBlue — February 23, 2012 @ 3:19 pm

  4. Another great “Made it Moment” Miss Jenny. I can relate to the Wolverine ride even as a newbie. Well done Mike and bride.

    Comment by Jeff Dawson — February 23, 2012 @ 3:20 pm

  5. This is a really good moment! Mike your book Shotgun Start sounds really good. It is on my list.

    Comment by Kellie — February 23, 2012 @ 3:57 pm

  6. Great metaphor, and fantastic that things are going well!! Best of luck in continued success!

    Comment by Leah Rhyne — February 23, 2012 @ 4:06 pm

  7. Great post, Mike! I found myself laughing – in sympathy – and nodding, overflowing with that been-there-done-that feeling. I too found a small-press publisher who thought (and fortunately still thinks) my books worthy of publication.
    I love the roller coaster analogy.

    Comment by P.L. Blair — February 23, 2012 @ 6:37 pm

  8. Thanks to all of you who read the post and commented. (And those who read the post and didn’t comment) One thing I’m discovering in retirement is that there’s great joy in just doing things. I’m tutoring and mentoring high school kids, I’m working on the sequel to SHOTGUN START, I’m taking a screenwriting class, I’m thinking about taking singing lessons. After completing a career which, at the end, had burned me down to a waxy nub, I’ve got the enthusiasm level and energy I enjoyed when I first discovered radio broadcasting and leaped in with both feet. I’m grateful.

    Comment by Mike Nettleton — February 23, 2012 @ 8:47 pm

  9. Just popping in today to see whassup. I spent the morning at a workshop to help us improve our mentoring/tutoring skills, then dropped by AAA in Portland to firm up plans (and make partial payment) for an upcoming England/Scotland trip. We’ve been talking about it forever and now we’re actually going to do it. Plan on visiting some spots we’ve read about in our favorite British/Scottish mystery novels.

    Comment by Mike Nettleton — February 24, 2012 @ 7:01 pm

  10. Great moment, Mike. We share admiration for Ken Lewis at Krill.

    Best,

    Comment by Pamela DuMond — February 24, 2012 @ 10:24 pm

  11. Hi, Pamela. Ken at Krill Press rocks. He’s extremely supportive of “his” writers and he has terrific ideas for title and cover art.

    Comment by Carolyn J. Rose — February 25, 2012 @ 3:30 pm

  12. I gotta say, Ken was so supportive all the way through the rewrite and publishing of SHOTGUN START. His enthusiasm for the project made days of revision pass by much more quickly. Thanks again to all who have checked out this post. And to Jenny for the opportunity to share my moment.

    Comment by Mike Nettleton — February 25, 2012 @ 6:49 pm

  13. Entertaining reading. Thanks for the ride. And the collective breath at the end.

    Comment by Sarah Scott — February 26, 2012 @ 1:55 am

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