POSSIBLE STRATEGIES

"Where have you been?" asked Bear the next time I saw him.

"I got the dreaded flu and I've been off my feet for more than a week.  I had a terrible cough and I even stopped smoking, that's how bad it was.  My vodka martinis were tasteless as well.  That's when I knew I was sick."

"Good grief, it's not like you to get sick Bum," said Bear.

"I know.  It took me by surprise too," said Bum.  "I'm better, but I tire easily. I was watching my favourite show on my laptop the other day, HorseCenter, and I fell asleep sitting up and missed most of the show."

"What's HorseCenter?  I've never heard of it," said Bear.

"It's a weekly video presented by my two favourite handicappers, Brian Zipse and Matt Shifman, and I have watched them for years.|

"Are they good handicappers?" asked Bear.

"Like all handicappers, sometimes they're good and sometimes they're not."

"Hmph," said Bear.

"A couple of videos back, Mr. Zipse endeared himself to me forever when he said that the most thrilling of all the Triple Crown races he has seen, was the Preakness, between I'll Have Another and Bodemeister."

"That's the Triple Crown races you talked about in our book, isn't it?  I believe you told our friend Gordon all about it."

"That is correct, Bear.  You have a good memory," said Bum with some admiration.

"Why don't you copy some of that story into our blog, Bum?  Some people who read our blog may find it interesting," said Bear.

"Bear, I don't think anyone is reading our blog much and it would take a bit of work for me to find that story and insert it," said Bum.

"What else have you got to do, Bum?  You're not up to scratch yet, what with that rotten flu, so typing is probably all you're good for."

"That's so true, Bear, my energy level is pretty low.   I have a hard copy of my book which my sister is reading, so she can do a critique she said.  I'll use that to find that horse racing stuff.  My sister suggested I do a summary for each chapter, which I did, and that will make it easier for me to find that stuff about the Preakness.  She has some good ideas."

"That she does, Bum.  Did you find it?" asked Bear.

"Yes, I did, I found it in the summary for Chapter 41."

"41 chapters!  That's a lot, isn't it Bum.  We must talk too much.," said Bear.

"I don't know about that, Bear, I guess our book is as long as it has to be," said Bum.  "It's certainly longer than those Harlequins;  they are mostly 10 chapters as I recall."

"Maybe you only need 10 chapters for romance," said Bear.  "What would I know, I'm a dog."

Bum pondered her problem for a bit and then said, "I'm going to need some quality time to minimize that Triple Crown story for my next blog, Bear.  I think we should proceed with Paul's Possible Strategies while I'm thinking about it.  What do you say?"

"I say that's a good plan, Bum.  What did Paul say in his Reader's Report?"

"He said the way forward depends on how much work you want to put into the story.  If you want to find a conventional publisher for it, I would say that it needs quite a lot of work.  And even then, you may never find one;  it depends in part on how much faith and determination you have."

"He can be a bit of a downer sometimes, can't he Bum?"

"I think you said that before, Bear.  Look,  he's trying to be honest, so we won't have any surprises.  He went on to say and I quote, But if you're looking to self-publish it as an e-book, then the level of polish and quality is up to you, the publisher.  Publishing an e-book is still not completely easy; the author has to do all of the publisher's jobs, such as getting the book edited and formatted, and then actually published--made available to readers where they find e-books.  There is also the issue of promotion, which is perhaps the biggest and hardest job of all.  Not that publishers do much of that anyway for new or obscure authors;  it's really up to the author to provide his own promotion even in that case."

"Is there a nice way of saying, I think we're screwed, Bum?" asked Bear.

"Not that I know, Bear.  I think that says it all."

"So, what else did Paul have to say about Possible Strategies?" asked Bear, looking quite dubious.

"He said he sees three broad strategies for taking the book to publication.  The first one he calls the minimal path.  This would be mostly a copyedit of the existing draft, cleaning it up, fixing typos and grammatical mistakes, and making a few easy tweaks to make it more presentable and readable.  Then it could be formatted for publication as an e-book." 

"I like that one," said Bear.

"I knew you would," said Bum.

"Let's face it, Bum, this would be the one where it could be published before I'm dead, or more importantly, before you're dead because you told me once when you die, I die with you."

"Enough talk about death, Bear, Paul's second strategy is the middle path.  This would be to make a serious effort to address the issues raised in "Things to Work On".   The result, Paul believes, would be a much more polished and complete-feeling story.  But it would not happen in one draft, or in two, or in three.  We'd be looking at several drafts, possibly one for each of the bullet points listed.  Even then,  Paul doesn't think we'd be talking about conventional publication; we would still be talking about a self-published e-book.  But it would be in a better position to hold its own against all competition, quality-wise, and should find a bigger audience."

"I bet you chose this path, Bum, because you are a middle path kind of person," said Bear with a smirk.

"I do not know what you mean by that remark, my dear Bear, but you are right I did choose the middle path and it is the one that Paul recommended.  My draft 2 includes those "Things to Work On" he mentioned so I'm good to go, I think."

"Dare I be so bold as to ask what the maximum path is?" asked Bear with some trepidation.

"Paul said this would be an effort to make the story all that it can be, to realize its full potential.  The idea would be to try to make My Imaginary Dog appear to be the work of a fully qualified published author--a good one.  This would mean putting strong effort into making the story work, and doing all we can to make the finished product tight, original, and engaging.  He said he could recommend more books to help me study up on the craft, so I can understand what's involved and what to do."

"He already gave you two books, didn't he?"

"Yes," said Bum, and said no more.  She'd read the books of course but she'd already finished most of her book so they weren't very helpful.  Maybe she could use some of that stuff they talked about for her next book, ha ha.

"Bear, our book is what I would call a fun read.  Here we are, the two of us, who love each other, and
 best of all, are friends.  We like to have a few laughs, and talk about our funny stories, and some sad ones too.  We argue, we make up, we enjoy each other's company, and we have plenty to say about a lot of subjects.  I think people would enjoy reading about our antics and would remember they too had such antics in their lives.  It's all about memories and you and everyone else can make of them as you like.  They can be good, they can be bad, but they are yours."

"Well said, Bum, you do have a way with words."

"Paul's a bit of a perfectionist about his own writing and perhaps he sees our book as Nobel Prize material if we do the work."

"You're no Alice Munro, Bum," said Bear.