Allen's Edge of the World

How to Kill a Perfectly Good Radio Station

2006-11-02T16:22:00.000-05:00

In an earlier post I lamented the end of MOJO 94.9 FM radio in Cincinnati. Cumulus, who owned it, sold the MOJO format to Radio One who created a new MOJO format on 100.3 FM.

Meanwhile, they simulcast WYGY (96.5 FM) on both 96.5 and 94.9 and announced a format change for the 96.5 frequency. WYGY was moving permanently to 94.9.

Two weeks ago an article appeared in the Cincinnati Post about a possible all-talk format for 96.5.

On Halloween and November 1, 96.5 played 48 hours of nonstop Twilight Zone Radio, half-hour audio dramas adapted from the TV series. Since I'm a fan of audio dramas, I listened all day both days while I was at work. Needless to say, the programs were of the highest of quality and featured name actors. If Cumulus kept 96.5 as an all audio drama format all the time, I would be a dedicated listener.

But no, on November 3 they launched their new format: all talk, all syndicated, all satellite-delivered national radio talk shows. Nothing local. If you want local, go to AM.

Well you know, that's exactly where all the talk stations are. AM. It's where they've always been, and you will find an over-abundance of both national and local talk shows on a variety of stations on Cincinnati's AM dial. There's exactly one local music station, the only place in town you'll find oldies from the 1950s and '60s, 1160 WDJO.

One may ask, why in the world would Cumulus pull such a boneheaded maneuver as putting an all-satellite FM station on the air instead of, oh I don't know, say a station with a music format that isn't presently in Cincinnati?

As I pointed out in an earlier post, radio isn't about the listeners. It's about the on-air product and how much advertising they can sell on it. The only truly important staff members in a radio station are the salespeople. Everyone else is just lowly-paid extras they'd rather do without. DJs? A voicetracked computer can run the show for free. Promotions? Who cares about local listeners? Engineering? Well, keep just one guy around in case a computer goes down. (What, you mean for all seven stations? Yes, we mean that.) Office staff? Well, fire the extraneous employees. The remainders will just have to do three times the work. They should be grateful they have jobs.

Think I'm kidding?

A perfect example is the new WPRV found on 94.9 FM on the Cincinnati dial. Here was a beautiful opportunity to build a new format from the ground up. New music, new jocks, new imaging, new call letters, and a whole new audience. Instead they opted for the cheapest thing the corporate suits could think of: satellite talk shows.

Here's a big secret for you: they cost either nothing or next to nothing to broadcast. National radio talk shows are self-sufficient. They carry their own national commercials and leave room for local spots.

If a local station wants cheap programming, this is what they do.

Let's look at the lineup.

Mancow in the morning, followed by Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilley, sports, Phil Valentine, more sports!, and Rusty Humphries. The overnight shift isn't listed, but I imagine it's more sports.

They have five hours of sports talk. Five hours! As if all the AM sports talk stations just aren't enough!

It has been recommended they add a couple local talk shows. We'll see how long it takes for that to happen, especially when the next Arbitron book shows a major drop in ratings. Maybe they can hire away Gary Burbank. Think he's available?

And we have the Dawn Patrol on WEBN in the mornings, like 'em or not, they are usually entertaining. But Mancow? Why in heaven's name him? Why not just stick us with The Greaseman? (Oh yes, he no longer does morning radio? Anyone remember why? )

So, what it all boils down to is that Cumulus has given us radio redundancy. What is found on 94.9 can be found anywhere else on either dial, both better and local.

The thing is, the corporate suit-wearers don't think local radio listeners care about their localities. If they could sell it, every city would have all the same radio stations, all playing the same network material. In a way, we already have that with Sirius and XM satellite radio, but that is subscription only. If we choose to, we can buy that service and listen.

But all-talk on 94.9 FM will be its death-knell.

Now, if that's not bad enough, they're making things even worse.

On Tuesday Entercom bought WUBE, WKRQ, WGRR, and WAQZ from CBS. They then swapped WGRR with Cumulus's WYGY (country), so Entercom could own both Cincinnati country stations (WUBE and WYGY) and have a monopoly on the format! Wait, is that legal? I guess so. . . .

Here's where things start going further downhill: 94.9 The Star will move from 94.9 to 97.3FM where currently the only alternative station in town, 97.3 WAQZ resides. WYGY will become 94.9 The Wolf. They've even already swapped office locations and studios!

Goodbye Everything Alternative 97.3 It was nice to know you. (It's rumoured that most of the staff has already been fired.)

The Wolf will play more top-40 country and have a high energy format. Where have I heard this before? Oh yeah, when 96.5 was Y96, Young Country in the 1990s. If you liked listening to the "puking-jock" on-air style, you heard it on Y96. It went away for a reason.

Does all this make sense? I hope Cincinnati radio listeners can figure it all out in the near future. My head just hurts from blogging about it.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how to kill a radio station.

Gee, perhaps someone should write a book about it. Oh wait, someone is. Me.

Audio on the Web

2006-10-05T15:54:00.000-05:00

Continuing from the previous post . . .

I had been sitting on The Adventures of the Galactic Star Force Power Squad since 1993, sometimes playing it for the friends of mine who appeared in it. Then, around 2004 I found starwars fanworks, a website dedicated to showcasing fan-produced, amateur audio programs with a Star Wars theme. They also feature "audio parodies," of which Galactic is certainly one. I contacted the webmaster and told him about my program, and he agreed to feature it on the website. Thanks to that site, Galactic can now be heard by people all over the world. Granted, it hasn't been a lot of people, but I do hope they enjoy it. It'd be nice to find out if they did. I've never heard.

I was inclined to create a prequel in 2005. So, I wrote it and we recorded in June. Visit the galactic site to hear it yourself.

I've discovered a lot of great audio productions through starwars fanworks. Some of them have Simon and Schuster quality to them. Some, while having solid production values, might lack in acting or story. The common factors among them are that they are all produced very well, with close attention given to music and sound effects. They also all take themselves very seriously. Star Wars is not a joke.

Where does Galactic fall into the fan audio community? It's a SF parody, and borrows elements from Star Wars, Hitchhikers, Star Trek, and a few other places (event the Simpsons!). It was also a rushed job. I had two weeks to write it, rehearse, record, and edit. Juggling that with a full class load and a part time job, I barely made my deadline.

Its acting is okay, but I did try to use a good variety of sound effects and music. It suffers from poor sound quality, caused by a bad final mix dub. But, over a decade later, all those things together--even the quality--make it what it is. It is Galactic as it is.

I do however, like it better than other parodies available on starwars fanworks, but that's really because I'm biased.

However, there's a lot good stuff on there too. I'll talk about that next post.

Audio Shows and Theater of the Mind

2006-10-04T18:50:00.000-05:00

I discovered the Jack Benny Program, Great Gildersleeve, and Fibber McGee and Molly when I was about fourteen years old. During that time, WVXU in Cincinnati played "When Swing Was King" all weekend long, hosted by Mark Magistrelli. When I tuned in to 91.7 one fateful day during a winter's break from school, I was introduced to music I had never really listened to before.

Being a normal teenager, I listened mostly to pop music and had a vague familiarity with big band music. I found that day that I liked it, and listened all afternoon long. At 5:00, the old time radio shows started, I believe with Great Gildersleeve. That was the first time in my life I had ever heard a radio program. After all, I was raised on television.

I really liked Great Gildersleeve, his funny laugh, his boisterousness, and I thought it was a funny show. I didn't know this was strictly an "audio only" show. You see, I thought I was listening to a stage presentation, a play maybe--however they did it back then, possibly acting the show in front of an audience, with sets and everything. But the voice and sound effects were so well done that I assumed it was a very well-miked stage play. The audience helped create that illusion. I could see in my mind everything that was going on, and visualized Gildersleeve as Ralph Kramden from the Honeymooners. In fact, that's still how I see him.

Jack Benny came next. I can't remember my specific opinions, but I do recall thinking it was easily the funniest thing I had ever heard. Again, it was like listening to a play, but was kind of like the Tonight Show with a funny skit and storyline. I pictured Rochester looking like Scatman Caruthers from The Shining. I still do, too.

I believe Fibber McGee and Molly came next. I didn't like it as much as Jack Benny, but thought it was entertaining.

I tuned in every weekend after that and became a fan of the shows. It wasn't until years later I found out the actors were all radio actors who stood around a microphone holding their scripts. Later I even saw a picture in a Jack Benny book that looked exactly like that.

That's how my interest in theater of the mind audio started. Also, I've been a continuing fan of both Great Gildersleeve and Jack Benny until today.

But when I was first introduced to radio dramas and comedy, I knew I wanted to do something like that myself, create my own radio comedy.

I got the chance in 1993 when I recorded the Adventures of the Galactic Star Force Power Squad! You can read all about that experience here.

In 2005 I recorded a prequel to that episode. Find it here.

Where is all this going, you ask? I'll talk about other audio programs available all over the web.

Halloween Music: Why Midnight Syndicate is the Best

2006-10-01T06:59:00.000-05:00

If you visit a haunted house this Halloween, you may hear some spooky music being played over the speakers while you're waiting in line, or you may hear it inside the attraction itself. You may also spot a poster that reads, "Music for this haunted house has been provided by Midnight Syndicate."

Then you might think, who or what is Midnight Syndicate?

Here's the Wikipedia entry.

Certainly not mainstream, and unlikely to ever have a music video, Midnight Syndicate is easily the best "gothic horror" soundscape recording group on the market. But it's not sold year-round in music stores. If you want to buy it retail, you have to visit the Halloween stores that pop up late September and through October every year. Otherwise, you'll have to order online.

Midnight Syndicate is great to listen to around Halloween, but a lot of people, myself included, like listening to it all-year round. I understand it has a big following among the Goth community, too.

I've described Midnight Syndicate as "moody orchestral music." But it's a lot more than just that. Each CD is a soundscape, a theater-of-the-mind soundtrack with varying levels of intensity and style. It is quite literally like listening to a movie soundtrack of a truly frightening film.

Each CD release gets progressively better than the one before, although I can recommend any of them (but I have not heard their debut CD). For instance, Gates of Delirium is a "visit to Haverghast Asylum," and during the opening number, "Welcome," you can almost envision title credits rolling on the screen. But there is no accompanying movie to go with this CD. Any images will occur inside your mind provided imaginatively by the music and sound effects.

Following Gates is The 13th Hour, which in my opinion is their best next to Gates. They have eight CDs out now, and their latest, Out of the Darkness, is on my birthday list for this year (my birthday is October 31, of course). These CDs are awesome for any Halloween event or trick-or-treating, or for year-round enjoyment.

As a Halloween afficianado, I've heard many other Halloween CDs and records. Most of them are disappointing at best. One such example is Manheim Steamroller's Halloween CD, produced by Chip Davis of the Christmas CD fame. The reason this CD fails is because it's too happy and bouncy. You can't have a Halloween party (for adults) and play this CD. You might as well put in the Monster Mash. I bought this expecting a good, dark, moody musical experience. Instead, its full of dance rhythms and fast tempos. It's not Halloween. It includes a second CD with sound effects which are okay. If you need good sound effects for your Halloween haunt, the second CD is good, but some editing will be required.

Martha Stewart, would you believe, came out with her own CD of sound effects titled Spooky Scary Sounds for Halloween. It isn't bad. I've heard much much worse. It is full of various good sound effects. The problem is, though, that the same sound effects repeat throughout the CD. If you can find this CD and pay a couple bucks for it, it's worth it. If not, pass on it.

Erich Kunzel's Chiller will always be at the top of the list for quality Halloween music. But when the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra performs the music, how could you expect anything less than perfection? Recorded in DDD, it's crystal clear. If you listen closely with headphones, you can hear the wind instrument musicians take breaths before playing flutes. The music is awesome, and it even has sound effects of a frightened woman running through the rain looking for help at a scary old house, and the shower scene is recreated as well.

And any Halloween isn't complete without the Halloween (movie) soundtrack.

There are a lot more quality Halloween soundscapes out there, but Midnight Syndicate is the one I recommend. Don't waste your time or money on no-name department store Halloween CDs.

Speaking of department stores, when I was a kid in the early 1970s, my mother and I were shopping in October and I spotted a record album called Sounds to Make You Shiver.

This record had everything. It had an awesome cover, and inside it contained a visit to a crazy haunted house filled with creaking doors, and out-of-tune piano, witch cackling, some laughing guy torturing a screaming woman, shutters slamming open and closed in the wind, and so much more. Side B was a series of the sound effects used on Side A.

I listened to this record millions of times. It was one of my childhood icons.

It disappeared a few years later. Last year, 2005, I did a search on google and found a few blogs reminiscing about the record. I found it on eBay and bought one. The cover was just as I remembered, and I listened to it and discovered it wasn't as frightening to me as an adult as it was when I was younger. Huh. But it was still fun and I played it on my porch speakers during trick-or-treating. The trick-or-treaters seemed to like it, and it did add to the atmosphere. Unfortunately, as a 35 year old adult, I found it a little cheesey. But it's cool to when you're a kid. And you know what? I still enjoy it despite its cheesiness.

Stop by again soon as I discuss which Halloween haunted houses in the Cincinnati area are the best, just in case you've never been to one and you're wondering which to go to first.

So long, MOJO, it was good to know you.

2006-09-19T16:48:00.000-05:00

It's always a shame when your favorite radio station disappears one day. That station you enjoyed listening to for your years is suddenly gone, replaced with something else, playing music you don't want to listen to and staffed by DJs you have never heard before.

It's happening in Cincinnati again. WMOJ is changing frequencies and formats as of Thursday, September 21. See the Enquirer article for more information.

MOJO wasn't my favorite station, but I enjoyed it. I also felt a close connection to it many listeners wouldn't: I built the place and used to work with most of the remaining staff.

MOJO has been on the air for seven and a half years, and is I believe the last of the MOJO stations in the country. MOJO played "urban gold," or Jammin' Oldies, as it is better known. It was also the only station in town you could hear disco every day. It played a lot of great music and had a solid listenership and a lot of fans.

A few months ago, Cumulus Media bought Susquehanna Radio Corporation (who owned WMOJ, WRRM, and WYGY in Cincinnati). As is usual in the wise, great, and powerful radio companies, Cumulus found it necessary to fire a third of its staff, not just in Cincinnati, but in its former Susquehanna stations nationwide. I should point out that the Cincinnati stations were already operating with almost a skeleton crew. Now, it's even fewer, and remaining employees have had to take on double or even triple duties, most for the same pay. If they don't like it, corporate says, there's the door. It's a harsh business.

Anyway, Cumulus decided to sell off MOJO to Radio One, who is changing the format and frequency, and will replace the 94.9 frequency with WYGY, which, of course, will cost a fortune in changed billboard advertising, tv commercials, and anything else with the logo. Yup, money truly well spent. Better let go more staff so they can save even more money.

96.5 will now have a new station on its frequency, one that has not been announced, but we will learn about Thursday.

Meanwhile, MOJO is running promos advertising its frequency and format change. Now, this is where it gets interesting. Normally, when a station changes formats, what happens is this: new company buys station. Everything normal, but staff is nervous. Friday, everything normal. Monday, whole staff is fired and replaced with new staff. Confused listeners tune in on Monday and hear a new station. Station gets flooded with thousands of phone calls.

That's what normally happens, but this time Radio One advertised the change, I suppose so listeners could find the new station.

But, no more Jammin' Oldies will be heard in Cincinnati.

I know one big problem that MOJO had was that it played the same exact music heard on its airwaves seven years ago. Every single day brought the same exact music. But nobody seemed to mind. At least they added music periodically and were slowly inching through the '80s. I was waiting to see if they would eventually play music of the 1990s. Many non-urban groups were heard too, including Queen (Another One Bites the Dust) and even the Rolling Stones. I suppose these were added because of their "disco sound" but I always found it odd.

It doesn't matter. The Jammin' Oldies format has been retired and the Cincinnati listeners will surely miss it. However, radio is first and foremost a business. Modern commercial radio's main purpose is to sell advertising, period. It's not to entertain or educate. It's to sell commercials. What is sandwiched between the 60 second spots doesn't matter, as long as the time is sold. Corporate radio does not care about the individual listener. They care only about big numbers and the bottom line. If the format doesn't bring in good numbers, the format is changed.

Never mind what the listeners want; that doesn't matter.

As an alternative to this, you can listen to the noncommercial stations, such as WAIF as I mentioned in a previous blog entry, or you can purchase satellite radio and listen to whatever commercial-free format you desire. Online too, we have live365 and a host of other online radio venues.

As for MOJO, I guess most of the air staff will probably be let go, if not all of them. That's what happens in radio. It's a shame. The on-air personality has a family, kids in school, and has planted roots. Then suddenly he's fired and will have seek work elsewhere, most likely in a different station across the country.

But that's what happens, and is one big reason why I didn't pursue an on-air career and chose engineering instead. Why I don't do that anymore is a different story.

We'll miss you, MOJO. My best wishes go out to any employees displaced by the new company, most of whom I trained on technical studio procedures and I've been able to call my friends, inlcuding Keith Mitchell, Tori Turner, Dwayne Luna, Quincy Watkins, and the part time staff who were always there on evenings, weekends, and holidays. I hope you all find new jobs as rewarding as MOJO was for you.

To learn about radio and its early days, please check out my book, Stepping Out in Cincinnati.

Cincinnati Bluegrass Radio

2006-09-13T19:29:00.000-05:00

I enjoy listening to a variety of music. Since I entered my mid-30s, though, I've been nostalgiac for music of the 1980s, especially during my high school years. Strangely, though, throughout the '90s I avoided that music and refused to even acknowledge it. Now I actually like listening to the hair bands I used to detest so much.

I also love the music of the 1930s and '40s, and own a sizable collection of 78 RPM records, mostly collected from eBay. Locally I listen to WMKV which plays mostly big band and nostalgia. It's a wonderful station that I was actually a small part of for a short time. Many nice people there. If you're in Cincinnati, they're on 89.3 FM. Otherwise, check them out online.

Also, live365 is an excellent place to hear any kind of music. Any kind imaginable. And it's free. It has thousands of online radio stations to choose from, including big band stations, comedy, phone pranks, and bluegrass.

I love bluegrass. The combination of banjos and guitars and the twangy vocals makes for enjoyable and fun music. And there's nothing like a live bluegrass show either.

If you're in Cincinnati, you must check out WAIF, 88.3 FM on the dial and online here.

My discussions about radio life will be saved for a future post, but in short, WAIF is a community radio station with a volunteer on-air staff. No commercials, just great music and a variety of unique programs.

My favorite is Cuttin' the Grass, hosted by Lee Elliot and his cohost Moonbeam, Saturday mornings, 8 a.m. to 11. I have been listening to Cuttin' the Grass for a couple of years now, and since I work Saturday mornings, I hear the entire show from start to finish.

This is like no show you've ever heard, and if you like bluegrass, you must listen. Lee Elliot is the genial host with downhome sayings and humor and is just a joy to listen to. He is a virtual bluegrass encyclopedia and plays an incredible variety of music during the three hours. Among other things, he is a "registered Kentucky Colonel" and seems to be plugged into every regional bluegrass event in the tristate area.

Moonbeam is his on-air female companion, a yin to his yang, if that makes sense. Between cuts of music they banter about bluegrass personalities and bands, and sometimes touch on Elliot's take on national news events. Moonbeam is a lot more than just a laughing sidekick, though; she contributes a great deal to the show, and together they make a wonderfully entertaining combination. While they tend to ramble at times, they don't detract from the music which is their main focus. And . . . they're volunteers. They don't get paid; they do it for the love of the music. Very commendable way to spend their Saturday mornings.

This is local, live radio at its absolute finest. If you're tired of listening to the same old stuff on commercial radio, then you must listen to Cuttin' the Grass. Check out the show's website here.

Update: Lee Elliot and Moonbeam have left WAIF due to station politics and other issues. Tim Strong now hosts Cuttin' the Grass.

And just a small plug for my book Stepping Out in Cincinnati, if you want to see the kinds of early country bands that paved the way for modern bluegrass, check out page 73 for a five-piece string band from 1930. On page 116 you can see the Happy Days in Dixie ensemble, with Dixie Dale on vocals, which played for WCKY in 1933. Turn to page 119 and you'll see the band who played for the Circle Arrow Show, which played Sunday nights on WLW in 1949.

And, we're at it again!

2006-09-13T19:07:00.000-05:00

I have not updated my blog in a long time, obviously. Here I am at last, to tell you what's been going on.

First off, my children's book is still unagented and unpublished. To date, I have over fifty rejections from both agents and publishers. I had to make a decision to either keep researching agents and submitting, or wait the remaining ones out and start my next book. The thing was, the constant querying was keeping me from writing, and I had a couple book ideas kicking around in my head I wanted to explore.

That, and I was still unemployed and still searching for a job.

So at the end of May, I started a novel. And now, in September, I am nearly finished at over 350 pages. It is a horror novel, unlike most you have ever seen or read.

Between now and then I've continued to collect rejection letters. Well, actually, it's dwindled to a dead stop, and I suppose it's possible I might get some more from the agencies that have not yet responded, but I'm not holding my breath on those. I'm still waiting on a rejection from one of the publishers I queried in May, whose turnaround time was five months.

After I finish the first draft of my novel, though, I'll start querying in earnest once again.

Meanwhile, I finally found a full time job and began in early August. It's a very good job and draws on my electrical wiring skills I've learned in past jobs. It's in an assembly plant for big machines, and it pays very well. The hours are 5:30 a.m. to 3, weekends included. This severely limits my time to write, but I'm still generating words every day.

I have a lot of different topics to discuss on my blog, so please visit back if you happen to stumble across my ramblings. I have a lot of pop culture things to talk about, not wishing to intrude on my friend booksteve. Also, stay tuned for a primer on Cincinnati radio. If you're in local media, your name might be mentioned.

Next post is about bluegrass, so please read on.

My Continued Agent Search

2006-04-29T13:04:00.000-05:00

Although I've been unemployed more than employed in the last couple months, I have been forced to spend more time looking for a job than an agent for my book. So, my agent search has been largely on hold, but the rejection letters do keep trickling in, and I did receive another on April 28.

At present time, 52 agencies and one publisher have been queried. I've collected 25 rejections. I have not received any personal feedback on any of the queries. Most rejections say they cannot take on any more clients, and others don't give any reason at all.

Since I'm unemployed now, I plan to continue submitting, but I must focus on my job search first and foremost. I also have a new book to write which I have not yet begun since I've been spending the majority of my time hunting for a new job. To augment my agent search, I plan to submit to publishers as well. More updates to follow. I have lots of subjects to talk about in the coming days so please keep checking back.

Where have I been lately?

2006-04-29T08:11:00.000-05:00

It's been over a month since I posted last. I've been around, but have been going through periods of employment and unemployment at my current job.

The government reports that the economy has improved and unemployment is on the decrease. Then why do businesses continue to close and lay off employees?

Case in point: Ford is closing F150 plants around the country. 1,700 Cincinnati jobs will be lost. Now, if the economy were good, people could afford to buy new Ford F150s and employees would still have their jobs, right? Right?

Here's another reported April 29, 2006: Kahn's plant in Cincinnati is closing. 350 jobs will be lost.

And Seagrams in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, the same area I grew up in, is closing. They've been there for over 150 years. It's been a location for steady employment for as long as anyone remembers. Over 400 people will lose their jobs.

Now, would you point to the statistics and show me how unemployment is decreasing?

I was a broadcast engineer from 1997 to 2002 until my position was eliminated. I then worked for nine months as an installation technician for a local A/V company until I was let go because the company had insurmountable debt and they couldn't afford my salary anymore. The same week I was let go my Subway book came out. Following that I tried my hand at freelance copywriting. But after nine months I couldn't find the business and my unemployment ran out. Deciding on a career change, I went to work at an investments company doing data entry starting in March, 2004. I've been there ever since, working in a variety of different departments--at least I was until April 28 when I was let go due to a slowdown of work.

I didn't mind doing this work. It was easy, the company was a five-minute drive, and the pay ws good. Not great, but coupled with my wife's salary, it kept us afloat. Book royalties also helped; it does pay to be a published author.

However, once again I am unemployed. I was unemployed for three weeks last month for the same reason, but was brought back in April for a three-week stint.

The first time I was let go was in February, 2006 for two-and-a-half weeks. It was at that time my wife ordered me to find a "real" job, that is, a real salary, benefits, and a sense of permanancy. So I updated my resume and started searching for technical jobs, writing or editing jobs, and even data-entry jobs in other companies. Since then I've applied to over two dozen positions, most of which I would be perfect for. Only one called me back. After a long phone call about the position, he promised he would call back and let me know if I were selected for the "next step," but said he still had thousands of resumes to go through.

Thousands. Think about that word for a moment.

Thousands of applicants. One job.

It's no wonder nobody ever calls me back. Even with my solid experience and education, there are countless other job-seekers with the same or better credentials than I have.

That's where I stand right now regarding my job. I've had to start selling things on eBay again to have at least a little trickle of money coming in. And I'm going back on unemployment next week. So, just call me a statistic I suppose, but I'm still out there looking.

Need an agent for your book?

2006-03-25T10:29:00.000-05:00

"I can't find an agent!" shouts the frustrated writer.

My response: "Where have you looked?"

If you're looking for an agent, don't google "literary agents." Any agent that advertises is not an agent you want.

If you followed the advice of my last post, you learned that you must educate yourself on the publishing industry before seeking publication for your manuscript. I understand that in your eyes and your family's and neighbors' that your book is the best book ever written. It's gonna blow away J.K. Rowling. It'll make a great movie. It'll be a hit in Oprah's book club.

Many authors have dreams like these, but also have realistic expectations.

There's no way any of that's going to happen if you don't do your homework. You want an agent? It's not easy nor will it happen overnight. Months will pass and you will receive many rejections. But if you want it bad enough, this is what you must do:

I draw your attention back to 2006 Writer's Market available at bookstores and libraries. They also have an online version. Read the informative articles. Browse the agent listings. Choose those who deal with the kind of story you have written.

Visit the website agentquery. Read their articles. Go through their database and start picking out appropriate agents. Visit all of their websites. All of them. Make sure they are currently accepting query letters. See which method they prefer: some like email, some like snailmail. Follow their instructions.

Also visit your local library and go through Literary Marketplace, which is a listing of thousands of agents and publishers. Find the ones who represent what you've written.

You will also note that many of them say "Always looking for new talent." This means that yes, they are seeking unpublished authors. Agents want to sign the next big author. Agents want bestsellers to add to their lists of successes. Some aspiring authors just don't seem to understand this.

Some agents will say "no unsolicited manuscripts." This means they must ask for the manuscript first. The only way they will ask for the manuscript is if you query first. Writers Market, agentquery, and numerous websites offer advice on writing queries. Once you've written your query, ask for help in the Share Your Work forum on absolutewrite or other writer's sites to make it the best query letter it can be.

By now you've begun a list of likely agents. Cross check each one with Preditors and Editors. Learn the difference between a good agent and bad agent. The quickest way to know is if they ask for any money: money for making copies, money for editing, money for representation are all red flags. I should point out that some reputable agencies have started charging very small amounts for copies, but these are few and far between. A normal agent will deduct all expenses from your royalty check. And part of an agent's job is to secure the best deal he can for the author.

Personalize each query as best you can based on the agent's history and list of books represented. Don't get chummy, of course, but you need to tailor your query to fit the agent.

Now,start submitting. It is recommended that you include the first two or three pages of your manuscript with your query, unless the agent's guidelines say not to.

Always include an SASE with your snailmail. In email queries, never send attachments. Instead, include any sample pages in the body of the email.

Email response time could be several hours to several weeks. Snailmail responses range from a week to two months or longer.

Don't be surprised or disheartened when you get rejected. It's a numbers game. Submitting query letters is like a direct mail campaign. 19 out of 20 can and will get rejected, but rejection is part of the process. Every week, send out ten or more queries; more if you can. When an agent asks to see the whole manuscript, celebrate briefly, but understand that it can still get rejected.

Many authors who successfully landed an agent have reported sending over a hundred queries before finding one that finally said "yes." You just have to be persistent and it will happen. It might take months but the end result will be worth the time.

When an agent finally agrees to take on your work, you likely be notified by telephone.

On the other hand, if you've received two hundred or more rejections, it could mean that your work is not ready to be published. It happens. If you're lucky, you may receive feedback on your query letter, sample pages, or full requests from the agencies. Always take their comments to heart. If twenty agents say "good story, poor pacing," then your manuscript might need some more work.

I strongly recommend reading blogs written by real agents for an insight to how they think. This can be a real eye-opening experience, but you'll learn a lot.

Miss Snark

Kristin Nelson

And that's the secret! Really wasn't a secret, was it?

See you in the bookstores.

On writing, agents, and publishers

2006-03-25T09:12:00.000-05:00

I've read a lot of blogs and message board posts by writers who seem to believe that publishers and agents will not consider unpublished authors. That there is some sort of Grand Conspiracy against new authors preventing them from sharing future shelf space with the likes of Tom Clancy, John Grisham, and Stephen King. That the only way to get noticed in the industry is to get printed by vanity presses like publishamerica or authorhouse.

What amazes me is that this logic suggests that no author has ever been unpublished. I mean, walk into any bookstore and look around. All those books were written by people who at one pont had never been published. But these authors didn't get their books in the store by magic. Most had worked for years perfecting their craft before they got published. And in many cases, the authors' first books were never published. The ones that made it into the bookstore were second, third, or even fourth attempts.

This is a reality that many first-time authors are afraid to face: that their first book may not ever get published.

The web has changed the way some aspiring authors view the publishing industry. It is common now for a writer who has just finished his masterpiece to jump onto google, type in "book publisher" and send his manuscript to the first one on the list. A year later he wonders why his books aren't stocked in stores like those of his favorite authors and why his royalty checks are less than $5. Soon he gives up, declaring himself a literary failure and never writes again.

Was his book something thousands of readers would have enjoyed? Nobody will ever know.

If you write a book and are serious about getting it published, educate yourself before you send it anywhere. Back in the "good ol' days" before there was an internet, I checked out books on writing and publishing from my high school library. I had already started writing at this point and I wanted to understand the mechanics of writing and how the publishing industry worked. I knew I was writing . . . crap . . . but I was also learning that the road to publishing was filled with potholes, and that authors had to work very hard to get published. I learned there were no shortcuts to getting a book into bookstores.

The first book I bought on writing was in 1991: How to Write and Sell Your First Novel by Oscar Collier. While this isn't a book on writing mechanics, it does give a great overview of the processes of writing a novel, dialog, story, plot, and characters; rewriting, editing, polishing; publishers, agents, and success stories of first-time novelists. This book provided a roadmap for me and helped me understand what I needed to do to get published. There are many other books on writing and publishing, just browse your library or bookstore for more. I also recommend Stephen King's On Writing which is part autobiographical and part how-to. It's a must-read for every author. And if you've finished a manuscript, you absolutely have to get Self Editing for Fiction Writers. It's required reading for all writers. Finally, use 2006 Writer's Market for a printed guide to finding publishers and agents.

But, as an author who just finished your manuscript, you may ask "Why? Why should I read all those things? I'm already an expert; I know how to write, my book is perfect."

Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. As an author, though, you never stop learning how to perfect your craft. The best way to do this is to keep reading. Read the how-to books. Read new fiction. Observe how successful novelists write their books. Also interact with other authors on message boards like Absolute Write. Ask questions and share samples of your writing.

You will open up a whole new world for yourself if you reach out to other successful authors.

More about agents and publishers in my next post.

Allen's new blog

2006-03-22T14:29:00.000-05:00

My first post in my very own blog.

Is it good so far?

Still reading?

You can't surf five different sites these days without stumbling across someone's blog. Some blogs are simply online diaries. Some are filled with useful information on particular topics akin to the blogger's interests.

I have a variety of interests. I'm also an author. I believe I'll be posting whatever I feel like posting about that day, whether it's about antique radios or the fate of the subway in Cincinnati.

I've written three books, all published by Arcadia Publishing: The Cincinnati Subway, Cincinnati on the Go, and Stepping Out in Cincinnati.

Am I an author, or am I just nuts about Cincinnati? Both, actually.

I wrote Subway in 1998 at a time when I was an aspiring author looking for a full-length project. I had already had a few articles published in Radio World magazine and had attempted fiction, but I had a lot to learn about telling a good story among other things. When I saw a TV news feature about the subway in late 1997 (Cincinnati TV news periodically mentions the subway to remind us there is one still there) I wanted to learn more about it. I figured there had to be a book about it, but there wasn't. There was nothing on the web about it (remember, this was 1997). The more I asked around about it, the more people told me it was a story that had to be told.

So I took it upon myself to write the book. I wasn't a traffic engineer, librarian, or railroad historian. Just a guy who wanted to tell a true story about a hole in the ground.

I was working a full-time job. It took about nine months to research, write, and revise the first drafts of the manuscript. I consulted numerous books about Cincinnati history, City-commissioned reports from the 1910s and 1920s, hundreds of newspaper articles about the subway, and spoke with a great variety of people about it. Every new piece of info I found went into the book. Then I spent more months rewriting and revising. In the end, the word count was 55,000 and I had collected about 200 images to illustrate the book.

I had several goals in writing the manuscript I wanted to accomplish:

Write about more than just the story of the subway. I wanted to cover local history as well, and how other factors influenced the need for the subway and its outcome: automobiles, interurban trains, streetcars, the two world wars, and the Depression.
Write the book in a conversational style, geared for the "every reader." I don't know how many books I consulted written by authors who wrote at several levels higher than the average reader, using long, multi-syllabic words and complex sentences. My book would appeal to anyone.
I wanted to write it so it wasn't biased one way or another; I tried to take a neutral stance throughout and just tell the story. If a transportation engineer had written the book, it might have come across differently than how I handled it.

During this time I was reading up on writing and publishing, and started querying history and university presses. None were interested. "Too narrow a topic" was what I most often heard. 1998 became 1999 and personal obligations forced me to set aside the manuscript.

In 2000 my wife and I bought our house. I spent the next few months performing various house projects, but throughout this time, the subway manuscript never left my mind. People would sometimes ask, "Get your book published yet?" and I would have to hang my head and say "no, it's on hold right now."

I had been visiting a website called Forgotton Ohio, run by an "urban explorer" who visited abandoned buildings and other locations around Ohio and featured them on his site. In 2002 I saw that he had written a book called Forgotten Columbus published by Arcadia and had it displayed on his site. I thought his subject matter was similar to mine, so I contacted the publisher and told them about Subway. They expressed an interest and asked for the manuscript. Soon they asked for a proposal. I wrote the proposal, and was then offered a contract.

Was I happy? Oh, yes.

Then the work began, again.

55,000 words was too long for an Arcadia book. I had to cut it down by at least half. The editor gave me a lot of help, and suggested moving chunks of text to the captions. I spent three solid months editing every evening and every weekend. I had to cut thousands of words. Although this was a time-consuming process, and not at all unusual in the publishing world, it did give me a chance to revisit the manuscript after the years had passed to find problems I had missed the first times I went through it. I also tightened up the text a lot, as well as deleted everything unnecessary. In the end, the manuscript was better than ever.

The Cincinnati Subway came out May, 2003 and sold out of the publisher in a month. They had to issue an immediate reprint. Since then, it's on printing number 5. I expect to see number 6 soon.

It still remains one of Arcadia's continuously best sellers.

In later blog posts I'll talk about my next two books.

I am moving past local history. I have covered the topics I wanted to cover with my three books and am now delving into fiction. I wrote my first children's book (historical fiction on a passenger train in 1895--yeah, history again!) and it is being submitted to agencies right now. So far, 38 agencies have been queried. 12 rejects.

In other news, my cousin Nathan Singer's second book Chasing the Wolf has been released. Check your local bookstore or amazon.com and pick one up today while you browse for my three titles. Also, look for the recently released The Pacific Between by an author friend of mine, Raymond Wong.