Neil Strauss

So…this weekend, the Igniter committee and I spent Saturday at a steakhouse with everyone’s favorite mobster and coffee scammer, poring over more than 200 sample chapters for the book we plan on publishing next year.

In a strange coincidence, at the table next to us, there was a group of writing - contest judges. No joke. They were judging entries for a contest at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. So they pitched in and helped.

Your entries were impressive, and made me so glad we took a chance trying you all out. In the last email, I hedged my bets by saying I couldn’t promise that anyone on this mailing list would become the co-writer of the book.  But now, I feel confident saying that I’m certain that one of you will be writing this book.

To that end, I’ve compiled the top three submissions, as graded and voted on by the committee (and guest judges). One of the writers is an electrician; another is a professional gambler; and a third is an unemployed computer engineer. I was amazed to discover how little professional writing experience the best writers actually had.

You can judge the top three entries for yourself here:

http://www.neilstrauss.com/writerhunt.pdf
(right-click to download)

And, as long as you’re reading these, why not join the judging committee? It would be great to get your vote and feedback. You may note, as we did, that some of you actually figured out who the mobster was and did original
research. That said, what we looked for when judging these was not research skills or mob knowledge, but compelling prose and the ability to SHOW rather than tell.

Let us know which of your fellow VIP list members above you feel should be writing this book. In other words, which submission do YOU enjoy reading the most.

You can vote for your favorite here:

http://cs.createsurvey.com/c/01/4201/survey/5682-4Xp4yB.html

Reading your submissions has truly been one of the most educational experiences of my writing life. Most of you really put a lot of heart and effort into what you wrote. And I’d urge you to do continue to do this with everything in your lives. Remember, the no’s don’t matter. It only takes one “yes” to launch your career, and your life, in a whole new direction.

After all, George Orwell didn’t give up when told it was “impossible to sell animal stories in the USA” by a publisher who rejected Animal Farm, Stephen King didn’t decide to stick to teaching when he was told that his types of books “do not sell” when trying to find a publisher for his first novel, and the Beatles didn’t break up when Decca Records rejected them, saying that “guitar groups are on the way out.”

So, whatever you’re doing, stick with it. As we already discussed here in one of the emails about Emergency and the economic crisis, if you follow the money, you can lose the money and then you’ll have nothing. If you follow your bliss -your passion in life - the money can come and go, but no one will be able to take away your happiness and your excitement for what you’re doing.

Great work, and looking forward to your votes and feedback on the submissions above. Some important messages about the preparation and survival of Emergency and the female attention to The Game are coming up in the next few emails.

Returning to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming,
Neil

P.S. The links again for the submissions and voting are:

http://www.neilstrauss.com/writerhunt.pdf

and

http://cs.createsurvey.com/c/01/4201/survey/5682-4Xp4yB.html

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Yesterday, I told you I was looking to give one of you the chance to write a book, specifically the memoir of one of the most interesting and famous modern-day mob figures I’ve ever met.

I want to remind you again that this is for real. If you are selected, your book will be printed and distributed by
the same company that puts out my books and compensated like any other co-writer. To all of you who have emailed over the years asking me how to break into the notoriously finicky publishing world, here’s your answer.

So, anyway, here’s how this is going to go down:

I recorded one of the not-yet-announced book subject’s stories,
which you’ll find at:

http://www.neilstrauss.com/barley.mp3
(right-click to download - it’s 16mb so may take a little while)

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to turn his words into a sample chapter for the book. You have ten days - until Friday, April 24th at noon Pacific Standard Time (that’s
3p.m. EST) - to submit the chapter. Make sure you send your submission to IgniterGroup@gmail.com so the entire editorial staff can read it.
   
Yesterday, I said that I preferred that the writer be in Los Angeles. However, there were so many great responses from around the world, that we’re opening up the search to you, wherever you may live, as long as you have the time this year to dedicate to this.

Here are ten short tips to help you knock this out of the park:

1.    All submissions must be double-spaced and emailed as an attached file, preferably a Microsoft Word document.

2.    Make sure you include your name, email, and phone number not just in the email, but ALSO at the top of your sample chapter.

3.    There is no length requirement. The chapter may be as short or as long as you feel is necessary.

4.    Make sure you write the chapter in the first-person, i.e. from the perspective of the mobster who’s telling the story. Since his name has not been provided, you may use the first name “John” if you need to use it elsewhere in the story.

5.    It may make it easier to write the chapter if you start by transcribing the recording of the story.

6.    The last sentence in his story gets cut off.  In case you choose to use it, after he says he should have called 911, I asked him why he didn’t. His answer: “Because I know they tape record 911.  And I don’t want my voice on that fucking thing.” (No, this will not be a feel-good story for children and Sunday school teachers.)

7.    You don’t have to use all of the information in the recording: feel free to include and leave out any parts of the story. The goal is simply to write a compelling narrative.

8.    If this is your first time writing something like this, you may want to read an autobiography written by myself, Anthony Bozza, or someone else to get a feel for the genre and style.

9.    You don’t have to transcribe the subject’s words exactly. Your goal is to write how they would write IF they were a writer.

10.    Please note that this is not a contest. It is simply a search for writers. The writers of the three most compelling submissions (as determined by Igniter staff and the mobster) will be contacted, and a meeting will be arranged. And, no, it won’t be the kind of meeting where you’ll be made an offer you can’t refuse.

Although it is our hope and intention to select one of the three top applicants to write this book, Igniter, myself, and the subject are under no obligation to use anyone submitting material as a writer.  So, that said, make your submissions great. Because the whole goal of this is to give someone new a shot and a voice, rather than relying on the same writers who always get used for these types of projects. In short, we WANT to help groom YOUR talent.

I believe that’s it.  So download the file at the link below, and let’s see some great writing:

http://www.neilstrauss.com/barley.mp3

Looking forward to reading your words.
   
Best,
Neil Strauss

P.S. The following may sound extreme, but the reason I’m writing it is because I was told to by bigshot publishing lawyers, who realize that many of the submissions may be similar because they’re based on the same story, so they want to avoid problems down the line. Thus, without further ado, the DISCLAIMER: All submissions to
be the cowriter of this book shall be deemed by Igniter Literary Group to be, and shall remain, the property of Igniter Literary Group. Igniter shall not be liable for any use, distribution, or disclosure of any submission or be under any other obligation. Without limiting the foregoing, Igniter shall be entitled to unrestricted use of the submission for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise, without compensation to the provider of the submission. In fact, we may even make the three top submissions available online, so that those of you on this list
can vote for your favorite.

P.P.S.  With the next email, we will resume our regularly scheduled programming on this list.

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I’ve got something VERY cool to announce for you today. But before we begin, a couple quick announcements: If you live around ATLANTA, PORTLAND,

MIAMI, or LOS ANGELES areas, make sure you check out the book tour dates in the PS at the bottom of this email. Also, if you haven’t read EMERGENCY yet, make sure you start reading it before next week’s email. I have a surprising issue that’s come up I’d like your opinion on.  In the meantime, Emergency just hit its fourth week on the New York Times bestseller list, thanks in part to many of you, so here’s a little reward today to celebrate and to thank you.

———————————————————–
DO YOU WANT TO WRITE A BOOK WITH ME?
———————————————————–

I’m very serious. This is not a marketing, promotional, or publicity stunt. This is a chance for one of you to get theopportunity to write a book that will be published as a joint venture between Igniter and HarperCollins.

What’s Igniter? Igniter, for those who don’t know yet, is the publishing company I started with fellow Rolling Stone writer and rock biographer Anthony Bozza.

The reason we started it was because we noticed a lot of talented writers with amazing stories who weren’t able to even get one foot in the door of the publishing industry. For us, it was easier, because we’d spent many years scrawling magazine articles. But for those who don’t yet have “social proof,” to use an expression from The Game, it can be nearly impossible to find an agent, let alone a publisher.

So, to help rectify that, we’re looking for one of you to write a book for us. But not just any book. It’s a very specific book. It’s
also a very secret book that hasn’t yet been announced.

Much like I co-wrote books for Marilyn Manson and Motley Crue and like Anthony co-wrote books for Slash and Artie Lange, we are looking for a NEW talent and a FRESH voice who wants to co-write a book for a legendary, infamous modern mob figure, whose roots begin at Al Capone and Jimmy Hoffa and extend all the way to Paris Hilton and even Bikram.

So take just a day to think about this. Decide if this is something you really want to do. You’re going to need a fair amount of time over the next six months to interview, get to know, and write about this extraordinary character. 

You’re also going to want to spend at least part of the next three months in Los Angeles hanging out with him, which should be a fun, possibly exhausting experience. You’re also going to need to be an incredible writer. How does this sound to you? Are you prepared to get inside someone’s head and write a fascinating, interesting, page-turning
book in their voice, organizing all their stories, thoughts, and modern mob wisdom into 400 double-spaced pages that tell a
complete, flawless story? If so, then stay close to your computer tomorrow, and I’ll tell you exactly what you need to do in order to get a shot at writing
this book.

In the meantime, Emergency book tour dates are below.

Looking Forward to Tomorrow,
Neil

PS Here’s where you’ll find me this week signing books, telling tales, answering questions, and teaching general delinquency. For real. You will leave knowing how to pick combination locks and escape from handcuffs in seconds flat. Unless you’re coming to get The Game signed, in which case you’ll learn how to get people INTO handcuffs

ATLANTA
Tuesday, April 14 at 7:00 PM
BARNES & NOBLE
2900 Peachtree Rd NE
Atlanta, GA 30305
(404) 261-7747

MIAMI
Wednesday, April 15 at 7:00 PM
BARNES & NOBLE
12405 N. Kendall Drive
Miami, FL 33186
Phone: (305) 598-7727

LOS ANGELES
Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 7:00 PM
BORDERS BOOKS AND MUSIC
1360 Westwood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Phone: 310-475-3444

PORTLAND
Friday, April 17, 2009 at 6:30 PM
BORDERS
708 SW Third
Portland, OR 97204
Phone: 503-220-5911

Hope to meet you on the road…

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Glasgow Signing at Waterstone’s Cancelled

  TONIGHT So sorry to say, that NEIL’S Book signing is cancelled in Glasgow.  Some of you have been posting this on other boards, so thanks very much for your understanding, and your help. Cheers, 99

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