Hi, everyone.
Just a little writing news in this edition. As I’ve mentioned in previous newsletters, lately much of my time has been spent doing the part of the writing process that I enjoy the least – sending out query letters to book publishers and agents. Two manuscripts, a nonfiction military history work and a fiction novel, are finished or are close enough to being completed to check and see if anyone might be interested in them.
With the military history work I’ve been querying book publishers who deal with that genre. Military history is a comparatively narrow market so as with other things I’ve written of that sort, I’ve been mostly working directly with publishers. At the suggestion of others, with the fiction novel I’ve corresponded with agents as well as publishers. Literary agents have niches too – preferred subjects for fiction works that they specialize in working with – so the process involves researching their sites and checking their track records to try to identify those that might be good fits to handle a prospective book.
Queries for both works have now gone out. Depending on results, or a lack of them, an additional series may follow at some point. One of the effects of Covid has been a considerable reduction in the number of book publishers and, in many cases, in the sizes of the staffs in the companies that remain. The smaller staff sizes have lengthened the review process; waits of eight to nine weeks are now fairly common. In those cases where the manuscript is eventually selected for publication, the further consequence is to delay the initial publication date. Many books may not hit the streets until one to three years after acceptance. (That’s not news that I react to with great enthusiasm, by the way.) There has been one glimmer of hope among the few responses that have filtered back thus far. One publisher responded to the query letter for the fiction book with a note that said: “I’m intrigued. I’ve passed it to a reader.” We’ll see what happens. The note was from a small book company, so even if the manuscript is eventually accepted by that company it could be a long, long time before it sees the light of day.
One of the interesting – and unfortunate – things that I ran across while researching companies and agents was the considerable numbers of book companies that have gone out of business or scaled back since the last time I went through this process in a major way for books that were published in 2017 and 2018. The “bible” many authors use to identify prospective companies or literary agents is a publication called Writer’s Market. The present-day numbers are considerably smaller. I ran across several instances where after identifying a prospective company or agent, I went to the appropriate website and found the statement that (the company or agent) is “no longer accepting unsolicited submissions.” The big companies mostly remain (although some have consolidated) but some have stultifying levels of bureaucracy. Too bad. Maybe I should have kept playing baseball. Have you seen the salaries those guys are making?
Change of subject. In the January newsletter, I mentioned a book by Jon Meacham titled And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle. Part of that newsletter discussion was about how vulnerable Lincoln was in terms of the physical threat to him and how tenuous the change of administration process – especially the Electoral College count – was. Even then, 163 years ago, it was recognized as a possible problem area, a weak point in the transfer of power from one administration to another. I recently watched a discussion of that issue and went back to re-read Jon Meacham’s discussion of it. Interesting stuff. Days before he was sworn in, Lincoln himself identified the major moment of vulnerability. The quoted material that follows is taken from the book. “It seems to me that the inauguration is not the most dangerous point for us,” the president-elect told Seward (note: William Seward, who would become Lincoln’s Secretary of State). “Our adversaries have us more clearly at a disadvantage” if they could disrupt of delay the Electoral College count. “It is, or is said to be, more than probable,” Henry Adams wrote (Note: Adams was the son of a Republican member of Congress), “that some attempt or other will be made to prevent the counting of votes and the declaration of Lincoln’s election” – and thus prevent his presidency.
“Much came down to a single man, and a single moment: the vice president of the United States, John Breckenridge, and the transfer of the Electoral College votes from the Senate to the House, where he was to preside over and certify the election. Defeated for president, sympathetic to the Southern cause, yet constitutionally charged with being an honest broker, Breckenridge was the object of all eyes on Wednesday, February 13. ‘The certificates of the electoral votes from each State are kept in the sole custody of the Vice President, who, on that day, with a messenger carrying the two boxes, and followed by the Senators, two by two, proceeds from the Senate Chamber through the corridors and rotunda, always crowded and pressed on either side by people following to witness the ceremony to the House of Representatives,’ Dawes (note: Henry L. Dawes, a Representative from Massachusetts) recalled. ‘There, in the Speaker’s chair, and in the presence of the two Houses and a crowded gallery, he opens the certificates, counts the votes, and declares the result.’
“Dawes captured the fears of the hour. ‘The ease with which desperadoes, mingling through the crowd, might fall upon the messenger as he passed through the corridors and rotunda, and violently seize the boxes, or from the galleries of the House might break up the proceedings, was apparent.’”
“’Breckenridge did his duty, Dawes recalled, ‘with Roman fidelity … and the nation was saved.’” Once in the House chamber, Dawes recalled Breckenridge as being “pale and a little nervous … but firm on his feet and unfaltering in his utterance, as he announced : I therefore declare Abraham Lincoln duly elected President of the United States for the term of four years from the fourth day of March next.”
Two things struck me as I read that.
One was the irony of Breckenridge’s circumstance. He was one of three others who ran against Lincoln for the Presidency in 1860, and, in fact, after Lincoln, he received the highest number of electoral votes {Lincoln – Republican Party– 180 electoral votes; Breckenridge, Southern Democratic Party – 72 electoral votes; John Bell – Constitutional Union Party – 39 electoral votes; Stephen Douglas – Democratic Party – 12 electoral votes.} Later, Breckenridge became a general in the Confederate Army.
The second was how closely that circumstance paralleled the events of January 6, 2021.
There were other considerations as well; that is, how vulnerable we were and how close a call it was. There is still some continued discussion about the relative security of the process. Hopefully, the passage of a bill titled “Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022” has strengthened the procedure. Among other things, the new law specifies that the role of the vice president is purely ceremonial.
Well, that’s enough of that “heavy” stuff. The moment has clearly come for something ridiculous, totally irrelevant, and of no earthly value to anyone: TRULY AWFUL PUNS.
Recently, I started getting on my clothes online.
My neighbors now take their laundry in at night.
Did you hear about the victim who was found dead in a bath tub full of milk and Wheaties?
Police suspect a cereal killer.
Have a great March – and for those in many parts of the country, keep faith that better weather will someday be upon us. Stay safe.
Tom
Just a little writing news in this edition. As I’ve mentioned in previous newsletters, lately much of my time has been spent doing the part of the writing process that I enjoy the least – sending out query letters to book publishers and agents. Two manuscripts, a nonfiction military history work and a fiction novel, are finished or are close enough to being completed to check and see if anyone might be interested in them.
With the military history work I’ve been querying book publishers who deal with that genre. Military history is a comparatively narrow market so as with other things I’ve written of that sort, I’ve been mostly working directly with publishers. At the suggestion of others, with the fiction novel I’ve corresponded with agents as well as publishers. Literary agents have niches too – preferred subjects for fiction works that they specialize in working with – so the process involves researching their sites and checking their track records to try to identify those that might be good fits to handle a prospective book.
Queries for both works have now gone out. Depending on results, or a lack of them, an additional series may follow at some point. One of the effects of Covid has been a considerable reduction in the number of book publishers and, in many cases, in the sizes of the staffs in the companies that remain. The smaller staff sizes have lengthened the review process; waits of eight to nine weeks are now fairly common. In those cases where the manuscript is eventually selected for publication, the further consequence is to delay the initial publication date. Many books may not hit the streets until one to three years after acceptance. (That’s not news that I react to with great enthusiasm, by the way.) There has been one glimmer of hope among the few responses that have filtered back thus far. One publisher responded to the query letter for the fiction book with a note that said: “I’m intrigued. I’ve passed it to a reader.” We’ll see what happens. The note was from a small book company, so even if the manuscript is eventually accepted by that company it could be a long, long time before it sees the light of day.
One of the interesting – and unfortunate – things that I ran across while researching companies and agents was the considerable numbers of book companies that have gone out of business or scaled back since the last time I went through this process in a major way for books that were published in 2017 and 2018. The “bible” many authors use to identify prospective companies or literary agents is a publication called Writer’s Market. The present-day numbers are considerably smaller. I ran across several instances where after identifying a prospective company or agent, I went to the appropriate website and found the statement that (the company or agent) is “no longer accepting unsolicited submissions.” The big companies mostly remain (although some have consolidated) but some have stultifying levels of bureaucracy. Too bad. Maybe I should have kept playing baseball. Have you seen the salaries those guys are making?
Change of subject. In the January newsletter, I mentioned a book by Jon Meacham titled And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle. Part of that newsletter discussion was about how vulnerable Lincoln was in terms of the physical threat to him and how tenuous the change of administration process – especially the Electoral College count – was. Even then, 163 years ago, it was recognized as a possible problem area, a weak point in the transfer of power from one administration to another. I recently watched a discussion of that issue and went back to re-read Jon Meacham’s discussion of it. Interesting stuff. Days before he was sworn in, Lincoln himself identified the major moment of vulnerability. The quoted material that follows is taken from the book. “It seems to me that the inauguration is not the most dangerous point for us,” the president-elect told Seward (note: William Seward, who would become Lincoln’s Secretary of State). “Our adversaries have us more clearly at a disadvantage” if they could disrupt of delay the Electoral College count. “It is, or is said to be, more than probable,” Henry Adams wrote (Note: Adams was the son of a Republican member of Congress), “that some attempt or other will be made to prevent the counting of votes and the declaration of Lincoln’s election” – and thus prevent his presidency.
“Much came down to a single man, and a single moment: the vice president of the United States, John Breckenridge, and the transfer of the Electoral College votes from the Senate to the House, where he was to preside over and certify the election. Defeated for president, sympathetic to the Southern cause, yet constitutionally charged with being an honest broker, Breckenridge was the object of all eyes on Wednesday, February 13. ‘The certificates of the electoral votes from each State are kept in the sole custody of the Vice President, who, on that day, with a messenger carrying the two boxes, and followed by the Senators, two by two, proceeds from the Senate Chamber through the corridors and rotunda, always crowded and pressed on either side by people following to witness the ceremony to the House of Representatives,’ Dawes (note: Henry L. Dawes, a Representative from Massachusetts) recalled. ‘There, in the Speaker’s chair, and in the presence of the two Houses and a crowded gallery, he opens the certificates, counts the votes, and declares the result.’
“Dawes captured the fears of the hour. ‘The ease with which desperadoes, mingling through the crowd, might fall upon the messenger as he passed through the corridors and rotunda, and violently seize the boxes, or from the galleries of the House might break up the proceedings, was apparent.’”
“’Breckenridge did his duty, Dawes recalled, ‘with Roman fidelity … and the nation was saved.’” Once in the House chamber, Dawes recalled Breckenridge as being “pale and a little nervous … but firm on his feet and unfaltering in his utterance, as he announced : I therefore declare Abraham Lincoln duly elected President of the United States for the term of four years from the fourth day of March next.”
Two things struck me as I read that.
One was the irony of Breckenridge’s circumstance. He was one of three others who ran against Lincoln for the Presidency in 1860, and, in fact, after Lincoln, he received the highest number of electoral votes {Lincoln – Republican Party– 180 electoral votes; Breckenridge, Southern Democratic Party – 72 electoral votes; John Bell – Constitutional Union Party – 39 electoral votes; Stephen Douglas – Democratic Party – 12 electoral votes.} Later, Breckenridge became a general in the Confederate Army.
The second was how closely that circumstance paralleled the events of January 6, 2021.
There were other considerations as well; that is, how vulnerable we were and how close a call it was. There is still some continued discussion about the relative security of the process. Hopefully, the passage of a bill titled “Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022” has strengthened the procedure. Among other things, the new law specifies that the role of the vice president is purely ceremonial.
Well, that’s enough of that “heavy” stuff. The moment has clearly come for something ridiculous, totally irrelevant, and of no earthly value to anyone: TRULY AWFUL PUNS.
Recently, I started getting on my clothes online.
My neighbors now take their laundry in at night.
Did you hear about the victim who was found dead in a bath tub full of milk and Wheaties?
Police suspect a cereal killer.
Have a great March – and for those in many parts of the country, keep faith that better weather will someday be upon us. Stay safe.
Tom
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