Online Class--Your Book Starts Here--Begins May 16

If you're interested in studying book-writing with Mary, there are a few spots left in the Your Book Starts Here online class, beginning May 16.  Sponsored by the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, this 12-week course is entirely virtual, so you can access the weekly lessons, writing exercises, videos and articles on writing, and more 24/7 from anywhere.  Limited to 20 writers.  Includes weekly feedback from Mary on your writing and a wonderful online community of fellow book writers at all levels.  For more information visit the Loft at www.loft.org and click on Online Classes or call the Loft at 612-379-8999.  Register soon if you're interested!

Researching Your Book--How to Do It, When to Stop and Get Writing

A children's book writer sent me the following question:  "I am interested in writing a non fiction book for 11-18 year olds and wanted to know how to go about preparing myself to do the research for the book effeciently?"  This writer had a timeline for her book and wanted to complete it by the beginning of December.

Research is both a blessing and
a bane for the book writer.  It's very easy to research now that the world is at our fingertips via the Internet.

But this wealth of resources also poses a serious sidetracking problem:  How can you really tell when you're researching and when you're just avoiding writing?

I love to research.  I worked as an editor for a small press for 18 years and was constantly being asked to research this or that fact from different authors' books.  I knew how to get online and sail through the mediocre listings into the really meaty facts.  I became good friends (via phone) with several reference librarians at my local library--always a good call to make when stumped by the various options on the Internet.  Librarians (mostly) love research and they are there to help.

But often I found myself cruising from one article to the next, opening more layers of links, and finding it hard to actually come back to the writing I was supposed to be working on.

Since someone was paying me to get the editing done, and I was under a deadline, I always forced myself away from the research eventually.  But when you're writing your book, you may not have this outer-imposed structure.  You may be your only boss, creating your own timeline, as my reader above is.  How do you stay efficient with research and still get your book done?

Researching Your Readership
I have dozens of stories from students in my classes who discovered they were writing to the wrong readership--after they did some bookstore research.  One woman thought her novel was geared toward adults but after she spent an hour browsing the YA bookstore shelves, she realized her language, tone, and subject matter was really meant for younger reader, in their late teens, as she had been when she experienced the specific changes she was writing about.  Another student was preparing to finish his memoir when he did some belated bookstore research and realized he didn't want his story on the memoir shelf--it was way too raw and dangerous emotionally for him to imagine his family members picking up a copy of a "true story" that contained their histories.  So he switched horses in midstream and became a novelist.

This sounds basic, but many writers forget that bookstores (and online bookstores) hold a wealth of information to help us orient our book projects.  So researching your readership is first on the list.

For the reader who wrote me the question for this post, as someone writing a book for a certain age group, you really need to know your audience well.  What language do these readers prefer?  They may be much more sophisticated readers than you were at that age, or they may not be.  What do they learn in school--and is your topic too sophisticated or way to basic for them?

And if you're delivering a certain topic and need scientific, cultural, political, or historical data, you need to translate what you research into wording that kids would understand, crafting your writing to lead them point by point through the material.

Research Information
After you've researched your reader and gone through the steps to explore your book's topic, you may have the urge to spend time on the Internet, in the library, or in your own book collection, making sure your facts are in order.  This is really important, and it used to be the provenance of fact checkers at a publishers.  No more.  It's now up to the writer, and publishing contracts have long clauses to make sure the writer holds all responsibility for errors of fact in their manuscript.

I love to research place, and I do that early on in the research process for my books.  I physically visit the location of my book as many times as I can, read other books set in that location, and take lots of notes--especially sensory details like the way things sound, smell, and look in that setting.  It's important to convey accuracy of place to allow the emotion within the place to touch your reader.  And, believe me, readers who are familiar with the place will let you know if you've made mistakes in reporting the details of their favorite locations.

Historical facts are also important to get right.  Watch out for the Internet on this one.  When I was a professional editor at the small press in the Midwest, we rarely accepted the first or even fifth Internet mention of a fact as truth.  It took lots of browsing and comparing notes from different sites.  If a fact was repeated frequently, then it was more likely true.  But I collected a list of my favorite fact-checking sites that seemed reliable, and they were the ones I visited most often.  University research sites, library databases, and reputable publications online were the ones I leaned on most--and I strictly avoided the chats, blogs, and personal opinion posts that could be just that.

Putting Research in Its Proper Place
Make sure, though, that research doesn't take over your writing time.  It's a great time waster for us creative types, especially with the Internet making the world of research so very accessible.  Hours (days!) can go by while you happily browse, and not one word of your book actually gets written.

When I am deep in research, I set a kitchen timer.  When the timer rings, I stop--no matter how exciting that next link looks.  I go back to the writing, to the blank page, and do what I came here for.  It takes discipline to leave the candy store of research and actually write.  But it's the only way to make a book.

This Week's Writing Exercise
1.  Make a list of topics you'd like to research for your book project.  They could be more information on the setting you're writing about, historical facts, readership research, or anything you are interested in that might enhance your story.

2.  Practice disciplined research:  get a kitchen timer or set your cell phone alarm for 30 minutes.  Begin your research.  See if you can stop when the alarm goes off.  Make sure you make notes or print interesting pages.

3.  Make notes to remind you where you were, so you can return easily.

4.  Look over the research notes you've made.  Take a highlighter and underline sections that might be useful to inform a chapter, character, or focus of your book.

Write grammatically correct dialogue

I could feel the thrum of the bass speakers all through my body. When I spoke, I couldn’t even hear my own voice.

‘I am going to the bar,’ I shouted into the noise. ‘I intend to purchase a drink.’ Moopie didn’t stop dancing, but nodded, flicking sweat off her face.

‘That is a good idea,’ she said. ‘To change the subject – do you happen to know the name of the gentleman who was dancing with us?’

‘I am sorry,’ I said. ‘I am having a certain amount of difficulty hearing you.’

‘I was enquiring as to whether you knew the name of the gentleman who was recently dancing with us,’ yelled Moopie, leaning towards me. I hesitated for a moment. I knew who she meant, but I didn’t feel like talking about him, much less to him.

‘I do not know to whom you are referring,’ I said.

How to Start a Law Firm | Law Clerk Search

So I'm in the market for a law clerk. No, not a virtual one - and no, I don't want your resume, unless you think you are extremely qualified and want to work for an extremely low wage (insert sarcasm, sort of). Since I hope you are all looking for law clerks this time of year (they are a great way to leverage resources - they aren't that expensive and if you teach them well they can provide a great benefit) I thought I'd tell you about my process for finding a great law clerk.

I've got to worn you, I haven't completed the process yet, so it could be a bust, but the concept seems pretty good. So here we go.

First things first, I do criminal defense, so I want to try to get a law clerk that is interested in criminal defense. At the end of the day I may hire this person on as an associate - this should work out as an extended tryout if I do it right. Because of that I want to make it clear that the benefits of this job are closely related to the practice of criminal defense, and not other places.

Second things second (I'll stop doing that going forward, I promise), I want to make sure this person is at least minimally qualified for the job. The minimum qualifications include not being dumb, being in law school, being able to write a coherent sentence, and being able to follow simple directions. Because those things are important to me, I turned the process of submitting the application materials into the the first test. These are the things I've asked for: (1) cover letter; (2) resume; (3) writing sample. But it doesn't stop there.

Within the cover letter I've asked them to tell me three things, in addition to what a great person they are: (1) what their favorite sports team is; (2) what their favorite Seattle summertime activity is; and (3) why they are interested in criminal defense. I don't really necessarily care what the answers are (though if you yell me you like the Missouri Tigers or K-State Wildcats as your favorite sports team you better have outstanding credentials), what's most important to me is that they took the time to read and follow the directions. In case you didn't know reading the fine print in the practice of law is kind of a big deal.

If you don't follow those directions, no matter how much I like you, you get cut.

Third, once the first cut is made, I'm giving them a mini-assignment. I'm asking them to research a question (not a hard one) and write me a memo answering the question (2 pages or less). I'm actually doing this for two reasons. First, it's another chance to see if they can follow directions. Second, it's an opportunity to see how badly they want the job. Put a little time and effort into this thing and it will show. Throw something together and I'll know it.

Fourth comes the interview. I think I'll probably structure it like I did with my assistant search - the same questions for everyone. Just makes it easier. What I really want to see at the interview is that they've got some social skills and we can work together. My new office is big but it's not that big. If I get to pick who I work with I might as well like them.

Fifth, and finally, I'll probably do a final happy hour to top it all off. I mean, let's be honest, everything's better with a happy hour right?

We are just about to wrap up phase one - the application submission process. I'll let you know how it turns out and who I pick when I get to that stage.

What else? Oh yeah, set up payroll this week. Once that's all done I'll talk about it a little bit and give you some information on who you might want to talk to if you're interested in setting it up yourself (I need it for my assistant and the new law clerk - there's a program where the state will reimburse you for a portion of your law clerks wages, but you've got to have payroll set up).

As always, your comments and questions are welcome. See you next week.

Starting a Law Firm | Leaving Another Firm

I'm such an idiot. I have been writing these posts about starting a law firm here for a couple years now, and not once have I talked about what you should be thinking about if you are leaving a firm to start another one. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

Okay, I might be being a little hard on myself. But I have completely missed what is a very relevant topping with regards to starting a law firm. It took a lunch with a great attorney this week for me to realize people are doing this every day and I should talk about it on here.

I will probably talk about it more in the future, but for today I thought I'd break it down into the three most important things you should consider when starting a law firm by leaving a law firm. And, just to be clear, what I'm talking about is leaving to start a competing law firm.

1. They are Your Clients Too

Before I get too far into this, I want to point out that I'm talking in generalities here. Before you go running off half-cocked with half of your current firm's clients, make sure you are following the rules in your state regarding how this should be properly done. Okay, disclaimer over.

When I was in Kansas, I worked at a firm where I had no rainmaking responsibilities. The owner of the firm had his clients, and he was good with that. We didn't get to talk to the clients, and we weren't expected to bring in new business. We were truly just attorneys practicing law.

Most of you out there, though, aren't in that situation. You come to a firm, learn the ropes, and then start letting people know what you do. As they need help they come to you specifically or call the firm because of your connection and get signed up. You may not do all of the work on their cases, but you do some of it. In some ways you would consider these people "your" clients.

One of the first things you need to do when you consider opening your own law firm is to figure out how to let all of "your" clients know you are leaving and give them the option of coming along. I don't know the rules in every state but I do know this - it is the client that chooses the attorney, not the other way around. If you are leaving and you have been working with the client, they have the option of choosing to have you continue to help them.

Just because you can do that, though, doesn't mean you should tread lightly and think through in great detail how you are going to undertake this endeavor. You don't want to burn any bridges, but you are entitled to help people that want your help. If you have decided to open your own business you have accepted the responsibility of making tough decisions. This will likely be the first of many.

What would I do if it was me? I'd do two things. First when I let the firm know I was leaving, I would talk to them about my clients and work out an agreement for splitting any fees that may have already been placed in the trust account and an agreement for letting clients know I was leaving and what their options were. And I would put this in writing. You know what an oral agreement is worth.

Second, I'd let the clients know I was leaving, what I was doing, when I was doing it, and that they were free to come along if they wanted to. I would do it in writing and in person (if permissible). Remember, you aren't poaching clients here, you are allowing them to make an informed decision.

If you've been reading this blog you know that finding and signing up clients is the key to your success. To simply forgo a wealth of potential clients to avoid stepping on toes or making people feel uncomfortable is irresponsible of you as a business person.

Oh, and by the way, you should be prepared for the owner of your firm to get pissed. Let's talk about that next.

2. A Well Planned Exit Strategy

When you go and tell your boss that you've decided to go out on your own, open an office next door, and compete directly with him, typically one of two things will happen:

(1) You'll immediately be fired; or

(2) You'll help with your "exit," but you'll just be giving the owner time to make sure all of his or her clients are going to stay with them.

Either way, I'd say it's important for you to have a plan before walking into the bosses office.

Most of the stuff you can do on the fly, after you've officially announced your departure. Insurance, website, business cards, etc. can all be set up in a really short amount of time. What you want to have in place, your "plan," is a marketing strategy, a "how to keep some of your current clients" strategy, and a time frame for when you announce your departure to when you actually leave. It's possible that you could have to implement that strategy very shortly after you talk to your boss.

3. Don't Let the Cat Out of the Bag too Early

One of the things I talked about with the attorney I met this week was whether or not it was okay to talk to other attorneys about her departure from the firm. There was the opportunity to share some office space with some other attorney and they thought it would be a good fit. But the attorney was a little hesitant to talk to these other attorneys because they know the attorney's boss.

And hesitant they should have been.

If you are new to the practice of law or don't have a lot of contact with other attorneys I have one piece of information that is going to be invaluable for you - we are a bunch of chatty Cathys. We sit around waiting for hearings, waiting for depositions, going to CLEs and we don't want to talk about work so we talk about the next best thing - what our fellow attorneys are up to. It's human nature, and attorneys are bad about it.

I would expect the moment the attorney left the office that a phone call would be made to their boss about the exchange that just took place. When that happens suggestions one and two get messed up - you can't figure out how to keep your clients and you don't get to control the message of your leaving the firm.

Bottom line, keep this idea close to the vest until you are ready to let everyone know. You know the old saying by Ben Franklin: "Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead." The more people that know your plan, the more likely it is to get out.

4. Control the Message

I remembered this fourth one while I was writing this so I thought I'd include it. I'll keep it short.

One of the great things about having a plan for your move is that you get to control the message. You get to announce your departure to your boss, you get to announce your departure to your clients, and you get to announce your departure to your colleagues. When you get to do this, you get to spin in it in a positive light.

Put together a time line for client letters, new firm announcements, etc. before you leave so you get to frame your departure from your old firm and the beginning of the new.

Okay, that's it for today. As usual, if you have questions let me know. Thanks for reading. Hopefully I'll have something cool to say on Friday.

Preparing for Publication--Writing Your Book's Premise and Synopsis

A reader from Minnesota has gotten interest from a publisher, but the publisher has asked for a written statement of her book--often called a premise statement--and a longer synopsis with market analysis.  Hers is a nonfiction book that straddles memoir and investigative nonfiction, and she wondered about how to put these two items together. Her publisher was specific:

1. Descriptive statement. Please provide a 250-300 word description of your book that includes
a summary of its main points, what sets your work apart from other titles on the same subject, and any other important points that should be emphasized in promotion. Please also indicate the main audience for your work. This description will be used to generate jacket and catalog copy.

2. Short descriptive statement. Please describe your book's scope and theme in one or two sentences. Also, please list three features that make your book unique.


What needs to go into these two statements?  How carefully do you craft them? 

They are quite important, and they can be used to sell your book to a publisher or agent in the early stages  of submission as well as present your published book to bookstores, libraries, and online booksellers.  Spending some time crafting them is a good idea. 

I'll give an overview here, but more can be found in my new book, Your Book Starts Here, where I go into the making of a good proposal packet and how to craft the material you need to sell (and publish) your book.

Premise Statement
The short descriptive statement is also called a premise statement, and a good one combines the outer story and inner story of your book into an intriguing soup.

Two of my favorite premise statements come from a book called Making the Perfect Pitch, edited by Katherine Sands.  These premises resulted in publication, capturing the attention of agents and eventually a publisher.

“I am a Vietnamese American man, a witness to the fall of Saigon, a prisoner of war, an escapee, a first-generation immigrant, and an eternal refugee.”--from a memoir, Catfish and Mandala, by Andrew X. Pham

“When all the kids around him were coming of age, Robin MacKenzie was coming undone.”
--from a novel, The World of Normal Boys, by K.M. Soehnlein

To craft a premise statement, I recommend brainstorming a list of elements of your book, five from the outer story (what happens) and five from the inner story (the meaning).   Notice how Pham's book reveals enough of the outer story elements to get us interested (the first part of the premise statement), then he delivers the inner story with the words an eternal refugee. Soehnlein does the same thing, saying that his hero "was coming undone," a clear inner story hook.  Both of these also contain a little intrigue, which is common with well-crafted premise statements.  There is often a little twist, a play on words, perhaps, or a surprising direction.

Descriptive Statements
Descriptive statements, which often become back-cover copy for books, are longer and more involved. They present the book's story but also its potential uniqueness in the marketplace, giving just enough to let a reader in on what the book might offer, why they would want to pick it up.

Here's the descriptive statement for my novel, Qualities of Light:

On the morning of her brother’s seventh birthday, talented pastel painter Molly Fisher agrees to take him for an illicit boat ride, just the two of them, across Cloud Lake near their Adirondack cabin. Fifteen-year-old Molly risks her father’s anger over use of the boat, but she doesn’t realize Sammy has also stolen their father’s war-era jackknife, promised to him as a birthday gift.

On the lake, as the sun is rising over the mountains, Sammy drops the knife in the water and reaches for it, falling and hitting his head. Suddenly her brother is near death, and Molly faces the hardest summer of her life.

She feels unable to appeal to her parents—anguished airplane-pilot mother Kate and stoic, self-enclosed artist father Mel. As Sammy lingers in a coma, Molly tries to get out of the way of her parents’ misery and accommodate herself to the guilt and sadness she believes she deserves.

Then she meets Zoe, a daring young waterskier also vacationing at Cloud Lake. Zoe gets her to dance to jazz in the privacy of a secluded cabin, even though Molly says she’s given up dancing, and the two girls become best friends and unexpectedly fall in love. Molly struggles to reconcile the happiness and terror of her first love affair with the family tension and anxiety surrounding Sammy’s illness, and Cloud Lake itself begins to play almost as integral a role in Molly’s emotional rehabilitation as it did in the trauma of Sammy’s injury.

Qualities of Light explores the budding of forbidden romance in the face of family tragedy, the forging of a new relationship between a daughter and her difficult father/artistic mentor, and the inevitable changes that come as an adolescent girl is thrust into acceptance of her own qualities of light and darkness.

The descriptive statement will get tweaked by the publisher's editing staff, ideally.  Or you can work with an editor you hire to help you craft it.  Since it's the marketing vehicle for your book to bookstores, libraries, and online sellers, it needs to be clear, interesting, and present the uniqueness of your story.

As you craft it, ask yourself: What's different about my book?  How deep does the story's message go?    

This Week's Writing Exercise
1.  Craft a premise statement for your book.  First list five elements of the outer story that are the most important to you.  Brainstorm wording for these on paper.  Then list the elements of the inner story, your book's meaning.  Take the two lists and create a short phrase or sentence that could engage a reader.  Finally, add a twist, if you can, using the two premise statements above as models.

2.  Craft a descriptive statement for your book.  Brainstorm on paper about the unique aspects of your story.  Start by noting the details of the plot (if memoir or fiction) and what's at stake.  Give the overview of your method or theory (if nonfiction) and what benefit it will deliver to a reader.  For more examples, read the jacket (inside flap) or back-cover copy of your favorite books in the same genre as your book.  Notice how the wording demonstrates uniqueness, gives just enough of the plot or focus of the book to intrigue, and leaves us wanting more. 

Starting a Law Firm | The Conference Room Conundrum

I guess this blog is supposed to have some day to day type of stuff in here, so that's what this post will be about.

As I've already written, I'm in the process of relocating my office. I found a great space - here are some pictures (a before view - I'll show you an after view after I move in) - but I've hit a bit of a snag with the landlord.









As you can see, the way it is set up is completely open. I like this. But I wanted to have a space where I can have some privacy if necessary - for new client meetings, interviews, and the like. This space doesn't have that, so I was going to build it out. But I want a look like this. It's open, allows the light to get all the way to the back of the office, and leaves the office with that big, open feeling.



The only problem with that is that option is expensive. Like $20,000 expensive. Not worth the investment. Not at all. So I started looking for other options, and I found this as an acceptable alternative. Not exactly the same but very close. Doable. I actually don't have a cost on this yet, but am bidding it out as we speak.



The landlord understood what I wanted and agreed to give me a credit for what they would have built - a boring, closed in conference room with windows. I thought they'd give me about $1,500 because that is what it cost. I get the lease and you know what the allotment is? $400. You have got to be kidding me.

I call the realtor (the guy working for me) and tell him the landlord is crazy if he thinks $400 would put that wall up. Come to find out the guy only included the expenses (and it's still not enough). He didn't include labor because he's got guys that do it in house.

I like this space, and I don't want to look anymore (this is pure laziness, by the way), so I'm trying to come up with an option that works for everyone. I figure if he gives me a free months rent (app $900) we'll just call it good. I'll build out the conference room how I want and that will be that.

What do you all think about this? Any suggestions?

Bookeeper on the Payroll

My "team" will be nearly complete after this afternoon. I've now got a realtor, an accountant, and now I'm adding a bookkeeper to the mix. I'm doing this for two reasons. First, I'm putting Kelsey on the payroll and I don't want to figure out how to do it. Kind of one of those "my time is more valuable than that" things. Second, I'm hiring a summer law clerk. I can get reimbursed for some of the cost of that through their law school, but I've got to have them on the payroll. And third, it's only going to run me about $100/month, well worth the cost.

It seems like right now the law firm expenses are really piling up. But as you become more and more successful you'll see that things get more and more complicated. Paying an accountant and a bookkeeper a little every month, moving into an office that suits my needs completely, and hiring a law clerk are all costs that add up. But each one of those expenses frees up more of my time and energy to bring in even more work. One new client a month (total, not for each) still pays for more than those expenses combined. That means I'm making money by adding to my team.

RJon Phone Call Update

I wanted to bring your attention to this comment I received this week about RJon, my business coach. I think it's really important that you try to find someone like this to help you through that side of starting a law firm (even if you don't use him). Here's what Angela had to say:

Hi Chris,

I chanced upon your blog a while back after googling "how to start a law firm" or something similar. I read your information on RJON, looked at his website, contacted him from various forums and this Monday participated in the free intro call. It was a very inspiring and clarifying 40 minutes. I can recommend that anyone should take him up on his free call, its free and really not that much of a time investment.

I hope to participate in his program but you are right- it is expensive. I'd love to call you to ask in more detail how the program worked for you.

angela

I don't want to sound like I'm pushing you all too hard to RJon, because like I said, I don't care if you use him or find someone else to help you, but finding someone to coach you through this business stuff could be the difference between success and failure for you. It's not as straightforward as it seems, and there are some things that you can do to really make your practice take off at the earliest time possible.

Have a great weekend. Let me know if you have any questions, and I'll talk to you next week.