11:37 a.m.
Hey, bloglit!
I have a question (or two) for you all. If I were to write a book what would you like it to be about? I mean, would you like it to be a compilation of some of my stories or an autobiography or a "plot" type book based on one or more of my cases?
Would you like more forensics and less PI or as bit of both?
I really appreciate any responses I get. I'm trying to figure out what will sell and what the publishers would go for.
Thank you so much!!
Polly
17 comments:
Polly - I would love to read something where each chapter is a separate case. Then, flesh out each case with the beginnings (how do you get involved, who do you work with, WHY does this case affect you so, how does the case get investigated, what forensics are involved and how does the case end?)
You could even start out with an unsolved case in chapter 1 and then resolve it as the end of the book....
Just my 2 cents.
Plot-based have been done to death - Cornwall leaps to mind....
My own opinion - I like your M.E. stuff. I think if there was a book on the insurance fraud you investigate, it might only feed the minds of those inclined to scam to be more sneaky. Like Higgy said, each chapter should have it's own case. Maybe you could do sections (suicide, homicide, accident).
I'm glad you're taking the bloglit advice. I know Jeff M was one who has urged you to write a book.
The nonfiction stuff you've been putting here has been great. You might want to query some agents using some of those stories as examples.
I was thinking more along the lines of a weekly half hour television show or a 40 minute show on Showtime or HBO. More of a dramedy rather than a hard hitting drama (hasn't the CSI thing been done to death). Heck, maybe even a full hour.
Besides, your little slices of life, to some extent, are more funny than dramatic. Like being stopped by the man with the missing daughter. There's room for humor there.
Granted, the female PI thing has been done (Remington Steele, Moonlighting), and the male PI/investigator has definitely been done. But yours seems, I don't know, more homespun and relatable, ala Picket Fences or Murder She Wrote. Less Dog, Bounty Hunter-ish or Cops. Just a working girl, doing a somewhat unusual job . . . but not having to resuce the kidnapped second son of the Prince of Macaronia who's in Los Angeles for a big peace conference.
Oh, and I have a friend in television production for Warner Brothers, so there's an in for your treatment or pilot screenplay.
I think a non-fiction account of your work/life would be wonderful. You write with clarity, sensitivity, and honesty, and I think people would eat that up with a spoon. You can count on me to buy a copy.
Have you ever heard of Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency? It's a book by Douglas Adams. You remind of that somehow. The world is crazy, and your humor and sensitivity as you see some of the worst that man has to offer is always worth a read.
I would think that your quirky and hilarious experiences need an outlet. Write what you know and how it feels. You will know when you have it right.
If you blend both the funny and terribly sad together, we; your readers, will get to know more about the real you and a life style that is far, far removed from what we consider 'normal'.
Find a good editor and get it out there. It's easier to prune than add new text.
Godspeed and best wishes.
The Adventures of Polly P.I.
You write it, I'll read it!
I think a first person journal type (is it fiction or non-fiction?) would be good because you could interject your sensibilites like you do here, which is what makes this so entertaingly readable!
$.02
I think a lot of us have the same idea - you mix the cases pretty well here with the funny, the sad and the touching. I guess that somewhere along the line you'll have to talk to an agent or editor or someone else in the business who can give you a more definitive answer about what they'd buy but you're doing great so far.
Thank you all so much for your advice and your encouragement!!!
I am so enormously grateful to know you all.
If you want an example of a blog-based book (If you haven't already) look at Wendy McCLure's "I'm Not The New Me". Wendy had her blog for some years and used that material for a book that's been doing ok for a first book. It's a little hard to find a theme in her book, since it doesn't run chronologically or illustrate various ideas, just seems to leapfrog back and forth, but it worked and wasn't a bad read.
That's the real secret for writing a book --- read books that are like what you want to write, so you can avoid repeating mistakes others have already made, and you can pick up lessons on what works. Don't buy into the bullshit some people spout about having your work become "diluted" or "dirivative". If you've got something to say and a way to say it (which you do in spades), you don't have to reinvent the wheel to be original.
That said, "original" isn't a big selling point to publishers. They tend to want stuff that's just like what's selling, since it stands to make money and is already proven it's marketability. The publishing world (as I've had opportunity to learn) is a weird place, but it is all about the money.
I'd have to agree, kind of a mix of what's on here.
Some of the ME things are rather solemn and serious, but there are other things to lighten things up again...the mix is what's good, because that's what life is like. A mix.
don't have much to add except that i expect to see at least 2 books...or maybe a whole series?! :o)
seriously, i will read anything you write. i have limited access to the internet from over here, and yours is the only blog i make sure to read whenever i can. i guess that doesn't really answer your question though....
cut copy paste ya blog doll!
I still say, the model for me would be Edna Buchanan's two non fiction books about her years as a crime reporter in Miami, The Corpse Had a Familiar Face and Never Let Them See You Cry (which is something you've mentioned yourself, Polly).
Her fiction is good but these two are outstanding.
Non-fiction, definitely. I mean if you went autobiographical, then you’d probably have to loose the PollyPI nom de plume, wouldn’t you?
I vote for an expansion of what you do here. Your humor is a tension reliever from reading some of the ME, accounts. The Accounts of the PI work, seem to be a natural for the flashback style of telling past “adventures”.
One impression that I’ve gotten from reading your blog is that as a PI, you are underutilized professionally and intellectually (IMHO). I find myself rooting you on, for the day when that opportunity for the “Big-Time” PollyPI will happen.
Some of your melancholy reflections on “your beach” could bring a tear to a glass eye! And then there are the times you go off with people to some little island, where for all you know, you might be trussed up and BBQ’d. Or letting yourself be led to a cesspool of a bathroom by a crazy man. You do tease danger, and that could be exploited more in a “based on real experiences” fiction.
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