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Jeff Stimpson, 39, has been a working journalist for 15 years. He lives in New York with his wife Jill and sons Alex, 3, and Edwin, four months. He maintains a site of essays, Jeff's Life, at:
 JEFF'S LIFE

Alex 2

by
Jeff Stimpson © 2006

Paperclipped to to the letter I sent to my publisher, dated February 25, 2004, is one business card, for Jeffslife.net. I have two cards now, one for this site and other for Alex. Back then I had one. My signature at the bottom of the letter has no mention of the first book. Why would it have then, as the letter is like a fading Polaroid of a moment I'd forgotten and must now remember. Time has come for another book. As Cousin Carol says, and she's been quoted by many, "Don't rest on your laurels."

I wouldn't call the sales of Alex "laurels," but I do have a book out there. Publishing a funny business, though. Stage one is before you're published, and they say you can't get published. Stage two is when the book is out, and they say it's bound to sink unnoticed. I don't know what Stage Three is. I hope it's nice.

In an attempt to improve the prospects for Stage Three, I've been stuffing envelopes with notices about Alex to everybody I can Google, from parent support groups, to autism and prematurity specialists, to sellers of special-needs books. In response, a few have written back. A few have also fed their wastebaskets and switched Spam filters.

A second book is needed now, and would fill several needs:

My publisher has expressed interest in a second book. They are, however, buried by manuscripts after getting a mention in a mystery writers' magazine that said they're interested in "unique" whodoits. "And of course," says my publisher, "everybody thinks the mystery they've written is unique because it's the only one they've written!" A few other publishers may also be interested. It's best I pretend that the proposal for the second book, which I'm entitling Alex the Boy, is going to be read much like the first: by people who have no idea who I am and who don't have time to find out before lunch.

Book proposals should contain a letter and about 50 pages of a first chapter. I have that, counting an introduction ("This is my second book..."). The story picks up in the late summer of 2003, with a "coping" class Jill and I took for special-needs parents and with a playground episode where Alex drank from a sewer puddle. The story ends somewhere I'll figure out later. Proposals should also contain a letter detailing:

The book will be about our family and how we're growing with Alex and with autism. Luckily, if that's the right word, Alex's condition comes with some facts I've picked up while speaking about my family and promoting the first book. For instance, one of out every 166 kids today is diagnosed with autism. There are few fathers' stories (more a rumor than a fact), despite great demand. I have become intimately familiar with groups that will be interested in this second book. I have a lot of stamps.

In summary, the trick this time will be the same as the trick last time: Convince the publisher that the author will do most of the work for them. Okay. I can immediately follow-up acceptance of The Boy (should I shorthand it just Boy? Alex2? ATB?) with a marketing e-mail notice to some 300 sources I've also collected while promoting the first book. Supplemental marketing, most of the stamps for which I'll have to buy, have the potential to reach hundreds more groups and individuals in the special-needs fields who, if they haven't read Alex: The Fathering of a Preemie (Fathering? Alex1? A:TFOAP?), are quite familiar with it.

That whole paragraph will be cut and pasted right into the proposal letter, I'll bet. That's not how book publishing works, but it is how getting further in book publishing works.

I have to go back through my files to other phrases to lift from the first proposal, such as "This story has wide appeal," "It's a story of hate, love, gratitude, envy, frustration, joy, and worry," and, of course, "This could be an important book." Not to mention unique.

Copyright 2006 Jeff Stimpson, all rights reserved