It's dangerous, I know, as P. T. Barnum warned us, to place your hopes on the good taste of the American people. But that's exactly what I did this summer. I put the proposal for my latest book up on Media Predict and as of a few minutes ago the "investors" who signed on were giving it a 96 per cent chance of getting a contract. It had the third highest rating out of 50 book proposals posted at that moment and, of course, I was thrilled, even as I realized it could be fleeting.
Still, at times like this it takes get strength not to wish that your high school teachers could see you now.
Ah, but back to Media Predict.
Media Predict is a media forecasting site and its stated purpose is to improve the quality of television, film and now -- with its Project Publish endeavor -- books, as well, simply by asking people what they think. Granted there is some flourish and gimmick. Those who sign on to the site can do more than comment -- they can also "invest," in the future success of a show, film or book proposal with $5,000 in play money. In effect, though, it's basic. People are being asked to pick what they like.
I know I am an eternal optimist but I think this could work; that people who are given a better choice often will take it. Regular, everyday Joes and Janes. It's not foolproof but I believe there is enough story sense in your "average" human being to considerably raise the quality of our media. When it comes to story telling -- when it comes to identifying a good story -- those everyday people are the best resources . If I learned one lesson as a newspaper reporter years ago, it was that one. Eavesdrop, as I do, on any supermarket line or at any doctor's office to people who are speaking to one another. If the stories being told are good enough, nobody ever opens a magazine. Let us not forget that Oprah, as part of her book club, put paperback copies of John Steinbeck's East of Eden -- not an easy book -- in front of masses of people and they gobbled them up. Home Box Office did the same thing, in effect, by offering viewers the elegiac Sopranos, a show that never would have seen the light of day on the networks.
It was with all of this in mind that I offered my proposal to Media Predict. To be perfectly honest I found myself in the doldrums of summer with a proposal for a very good book -- it would be my fourth -- that was not resonating among the first editors who read it. They just didn't get it. So instead of doing nothing and waiting for September, I went public with the proposal, figuring that Media Predict would give it exposure it would not get otherwise. This would be an opportunity for some early pages of the book to be read, not just by book editors but by the people who purchase their books as well. Far as I can tell, it worked. Lots of people read those pages.
The working title of my proposed book is Dan In The World: A Young Man with Autism Grows Up, Moves On -- and Moves Out. It will be nonfiction, about my own son Daniel Mulvaney who is twenty years old and severely autistic. But it won't be a traditional memoir. Instead of looking back I will examine the present and the years to come as Dan moves into adulthood. Hence, it will be a book about hard work not miracles or, as my former boss Tony Marro, the retired editor of Newsday puts it: "It is about the realities." For years, Tony Marro has told me that this is the one book I must write.
Sixty pages are done and about ten of them are up on Media Predict. They were difficult to write but I knew even before I started that this was not going to be an easy book. I will be chronicling my very own son's efforts to move into a group home, to hold down jobs, to have fun playing ice hockey, surfing and horseback riding -- and to continue to try to find a way to communicate and live in this world. Dan has not had any speech since he was three and a half and on top of that he often finds himself working overtime to moderate behaviors that he can't help and that most people find repulsive. Dan is a charming, handsome young man who has also been known to fly into rages and soil his pants -- and there's absolutely no guarantee that both of those things won't happen on the same day, if not within the same hour. In short, Dan is a protagonist whose most prominent trait is courage.
And yet the prevailing comment about Dan In The World, from that early cohort of book editors was more or less dismissive, as in: "There is already too much about autism out there." My reply: There is also too much autism out there, period. In recent years, no doubt due to an environmental trigger or triggers, autism has become an epidemic affecting one in 150 children, all of whom, like my son, will be growing up.
But there is no book about what will happen to them -- or to the rest of us when they descend on "our world," as they have every right to do. Dan In The World, will, be that book, or at any rate, the first one. I think there will be room for many more.
Soon Project Publish at Media Predict will be over. (Although I do hope they do it again). Touchstone Books at Simon & Schuster, which is partnering in this, will select five finalists and the hope is that the selection will be based on the voice of the people. Those five finalists will then compete against each other for investor play money and Touchstone will decide who gets the coveted contract.
Maybe it will be me. Maybe it won't. Maybe I will be "voted off the island." If I am, then it's back to the real world, which, this summer notwithstanding, hasn't been that bad to me, in general. My other books were also not-so-obvious choices and they were all, after a few rejections, awarded contracts with major publishers. This is pretty common in the business, as last weekend's New York Times made crystal clear. On Saturday, in Madeleine L'Engle's obituary it was noted that her masterpiece, A Wrinkle in Time was initially rejected by 26 publishers. On Sunday, a book review essay listed Jorge Borges, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Anais Nin, Jack Kerouac and Sylvia Plath, among the literary luminaries rejected by Alfred A. Knopf Inc, "the gold standard in the book trade."
Like most writers, I have had good experiences with publishers. And not so good ones.
But with Media Predict -- a prognosticator rather than a publisher -- it was as good as it gets. Brent Stinski, the founder, responded quickly to my application to be on the site, welcomed me heartily, clearly explained all the rules and even, publisher-like, deployed a designer to make me a book cover that I really like.
And as a bonus, I got to be part of a pioneering effort in the book business.