_______________ / /| \ /| SoulZ at Zer0 | / /| \ \ /-| / | | 01-95 SaZ Pak | \ /-| / // | \ | +---------------+ // | \ |/_______________/ -----THE-DEATH-CERTIFICATE------VOLUME-1-ISSUE-3---------JANUARY--1995----- Staff: The Stranger, Jack Flack - Editors, Writers. Black Sunshine - Writer. (*) If you are interested in contributing to The Death Certificate please let one of the editors know. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Glacier knocks in the cupboard, The desert sighs in the bed, And the crack in the teapot opens A lane to the land of the dead." W.H. Auden --------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Table of Contents + Words from the Editors Letters to the Editors SAZ News Horror News Article on "Natural Born Killers" Reviews The Writers Block Final Words ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Words from the Editors: Jack Flack: Hey kids ... I had a great X-mas! I hope you all are enjoying the new SAZ stuff, some of it is horror, some of it is not, so if you like what you are seeing or not, please give us some feedback (see letters to the editor). One exciting thing this month is our VIEWER!!! I would like to spend a special thanks out to the guy who wrote the code and doesn't know I am using it. If you see this, thanks! The viewer kinda sucks, but it works, and since no one else has followed up on their promises (you know who you are) I had to write a crappy one. Another thing to watch for is our BEST OF pack, which has some of our older stuff that we liked, and will probably be coming out in a week or two, as soon as I do the menu for it. We also have two guest writers this month, Deranged and Destiny, so take a look at their stuff and tell us what you think as well. If you would like to be a guest writer, we have a pretty strict policy that consists of you sending us your poems and basically we will use them, of course there are exceptions (sorry Legion, but the sex with the eye socket was just a little too much even for us, but keep trying.) Check out the saz.nfo file, it has all of our ld support areas, and also check the other files through out the pack. Everything should be accessible from the menu, so please enjoy, and give us some feedback. -Jack Flack/SAZ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Stranger: Hello everyone. I hope all of you are having a wonderful New Year and I hope you had a great Christmas. As I usually say, thank you for pickingŠup the new SAZ pack and for looking through it. It really means a lot to us. As always, if you have any comments or questions, just leave me a note somewhere and I'll find it. If you've been with us since the start you might have noticed a little change in our group. When we started out we considered ourselves a "Horror LIT Group" but I think thats changed. Sure we still offer a poem here and there with designs of scaring you a little. But I think with our December pack we started to turn a corner, just a little bit, and moved away from what you might call horror. I mean how many vampire poems can we write? I think are lit now and hopefully always, will focus on the dark side of life. I hope that some of our poems continue to have the fantasy and the elements of what I consider horror. I don't think, and I seriously hope, you will ever see a typical love poem come out of SAZ. And there's nothing wrong with a love poem, its just not what we set out to do. Some may say that some of the poems I've done for this pack are love poems, but you may notice that one of my characters always dies. So the point I'm trying to make with this editorial is that we will always write about the darker side of life, whether that is abuse or monsters in your closets. Not because other types of poetry are bad, but because this is what SAZ is all about. I want to take a second here to thank fellow SAZ member, Black Sunshine who put a lot more time into the Death Certificate this month then I did. Just about everything you read in this monthes issue was done by her. Thanks a lot Ms. Sunshine, I owe you. And folks, if you read nothing else in this pack, make sure you read her article on the film "Natural Born Killers." It's worth it. Have a wonderful month and please keep an eye out for the next SAZ pack coming to you in mid-Febuary. Please drop us a note and tell us what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong. Enjoy the pack and stay safe. The Stranger... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I know death hath ten thousand several doors For men to take their exit. John Webster, "Duchess Of Malfi" ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Letter's to the Editors Well kids, we only had one letter or comment to the group, and this month it was from Buster Friendly, programmer extroidenairre. This comment came via VDS, which was voted worst BBS in the 405 area by the Brotherhood of 405. :) Jack Flack (to Buster Friendly) : So, what did you think about the last soulz at Zero pack? Buster Friendly (to Jack Flack) : I read through the pack, and I thought the whole thing was extremely trite and cliche'. I kept expecting the stories to start with "it was a dark and stormy night" and I think one of them actually did. Thanks for the comment! We appreciate all comments about the group, so keep them coming! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Soulz At Zero News Just a few things to note this month. First, we are starting to branch out more across the country. We have set up a lot of distro sites so that as many people as possible will be able to find the packs. We want to thank all the sysops who are allowing us to take up room on their harddrives. If you run a board and would like to be a distro site or possible a headquarters, send us a note on any SAZ board. Our home BBS, Where Shadows Wait, is going pretty good. We've been running now for over a month and we are now beginning to become a distro site for other groups with our first one being fellow LIT artist Reality. If you would like Where Shadows Wait to be a distro or HQ for your group just give us a call and let us know. We are adding something new this month, something we are calling "Guest Writers." The idea is that some people out there would like to see some of their writing in our packs but don't neccesarily want to meet our deadlines every month or they just don't want to be a member of a group right now. This month we have two guest writers, Deranged and Destiny, who we want to welcome to our SAZ family. If you would like to be a guest writer or would like to become an official member of SAZ, just leave us a note on Where Shadows Wait or one of the SAZ sites along with some of your work in Ascii format zipped up. That's the newz for this month. See ya next time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Horror News by The Stranger: New in Bookstores: Christopher Pike attacks the book shelves this month with three new books. "The Cold Ones" is his newest hardback, while two paperbacks, "The Listeners" and "Remember Me 3" are also now out. Pike is an easy read so check these out if you get the chance. Dean Koontz has taken another book from his past and turned it into a number 1 best seller. It's new title is "Icebound" but he released it in 1976 under the name of David Axton as "Prison of Ice." Be warned, this is not typical Koontz here. This is an adventure book dealing with Soviet submarines. Lucy Taylor comes back with another limited edition short story collection called "Close to the Bone." Taylor writes very nasty, sexual short stories so check her out if you get the chance. Your not going to find this book at the local mall though. Rex Miller's new book "Butcher" is out in paperback. No one writes like Miller. If you like them quick, violent, and filled with cops, pick up any Miller book. Nancy Collins is back with "Nameless Sins" which is a short story collection that you will not find in your malls. And this one is going to run you from $25-65. John Farris is a british author who has written many horror classics is back with a new novel this month called "Sacrifice." Dan Simmons's new novel is called "Fires of Eden" and it seems toŠbe selling well. Which should be expected since Dan is one of the true artist of horror literture. Check out his "Summer of Night" if you get the chance. Englands second most famous author after Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell releases "The Long Lost" this month. Campbell seems to release 2 books a month. Alan Rodgers new novel "Pandora" is a Ufo conspiracy type novel about a living girl actually found in the wreckage of a ufo. For those of you who like a little Sci-Fi in your horror, this should be a great book. Poppy Z. Brite has a new anthology out called "Love in Vein" which has 20 orginal stories by some of the biggest writers around. If you know short story writers then you will know how great this list is:Norman Partridge, Wayne Allen Sallee, Steve Tem, Douglass Clegg, David Silva, Brian Hodge, Nancy Holder and a ton of others. This one will be difficult to find because of some publishing problems. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In Defense of "Natural Born Killers" By Black Sunshine Recently the Oliver Stone blockbuster release "Natural Born Killers" was cited as the worst movie of 1994 by The Daily Oklahoman. While certainly, it cannot compete with Forrest Gump or any other the other movies that are making the number one spot, there is a lot to be said for it. Those who don't agree are probably trying to judge the movie on levels in which it was never meant to be judged in the first place. Here is a list of reasons why the movie deserves more credit than it got. MOST LIKEABLE BAD GUYS - Mickey and Mallory Knox will go down on the books for me as the coolest antagonists in an action movie. As was said in the movie by an interviewee in a simulated news report, "I respect human life and all, but if I was going to be a mass murderer, I'd be Mickey and Mallory." Well said. One can also easily develop a love/hate relationship with the sleazy tabloid talk show reporter going after the couple's story. So what if all the characters are bad? That's what makes them so good! MOST ENVIABLE COUPLE - He's strong, loyal and stands up for her. She's tough, devoted and loving. Women, how many men do you know that would kill your sexually abusive parents for you? Men, how many women do you know that could have two men groaning in pain in 2.5 seconds and use the enie-meanie-minie-mo rhyme to decide which one you should let live? The two seal their life together (their idea of marriage) by standing on a bridge and slashing their palms, then letting the blood drip down into the river while they hold hands. Even though they had their share of problems, I almost got sick over the lovey-dovey talk they used with each other throughout the movie. It's amazing what mass murder can do for your love life. BEST SOUNDTRACK - All kidding aside, this CD plays like a concept album. There are scenes from the movie (even one of my favorites, see BEST SEX SCENE below) included in between, and even during some of the songs that pull the listener right into the story. Between the songs and scenes, a total of 27 tracks retell the movie all over again. Also, there was an extremely wide variety of music on the album, with songs from L7, Jane's Addiction, Peter Gabriel, Patsy Cline, Leonard Cohen, Cowboy Junkies, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Nine Inch Nails and others. Speaking of NIN, the soundtrack is produced by Trent Reznor (who IS Nine Inch Nails according to the 1989 album, False God..haha), so we get a peek into his brilliant perception of the movie. BEST SEX SCENE - Okay. Here's the classic scene. Mickey and Mallory get into a fight, and Mallory drives off in an angry huff. When she pulls into a gas station and the attendant keeps eyeing her lustfully, she takes the opportunity to use him to stroke her, uh.. ego. After seducing him right there on the hood of her car, she tells him to go down on her. Well, he does. And too late for him, he realizes who she is (Holy shit, you're Mallory Knox, ain't ya?). Her response? Pull out a gun and shoot him four times. Then, breathing heavily, she shouts, "That was the worst fucking head I ever got in my life! Next time don't be so fucking eager." I swear, I've never laughed so hard in my life. MOST SURREALISTIC - The movie was full of symbols, most of them cliches, but still helped propel the movie out of the realm of the average. Examples: the hundreds of snakes in the desert, the fireworks in the sky when Mickey and Mallory kiss, the nearly subliminal images flashed as Mickey tells his story from prison to the tabloid news program. Of course, I don't know what they all mean, but they add to the dreamlike quality of the movie and help set it apart from others, while providing disturbing things to think about-- which is always a plus. BEST CAMERA/VIDEO TRICKS - This movie went off the wall with it's video techniques, combining several different types of media, once again to add to the dreamlike quality of the movie and manipulate the audience. (I find audience manipulation very impressive). We get it all. We get cartoon scenes, computer animation, virtual reality. We get a highly lightened or darkened picture, blurred scenes, quick zoom-ins and -outs. We get to see it on security cameras, camcorders, TV news cameras. Rather than stay with one style of shooting, Stone manages to incorporate them all. BEST 'MESSAGE' MOVIE - I was just enjoying the movie, wasn't aware there WAS a message until the last two minutes or so, when we get quick glimpses of popular media-hyped heroes/villains in America, such as (Oh God, I don't want to have to mention these names ever again) John and Lorena Bobbit, Amy Fisher, Joey Buttafoaco, Tonya Harding, Nancy Kerrigan, and of course, O.J. I hope I don't have to explain the message that is in the movie. Some critics argued that by making Natural Born Killers, Stone had done the very thing that he was reproaching the media for. But then, so am I just by writing this paragraph. And most importantly (at the risk of using an excessively media- hyped and highly stereotypical phrase): BEST 'GENERATION X' MOVIE - All of the above things I listed combine into one to make this reason the most significant one of all, and the reason why Natural Born Killers will never be considered one of the best movies. We get the characters Mickey and Mallory Knox, the bad guys portrayed as the good guys, the victims of society. Mallory's father had been raping her for years, while her mother stood by without saying a word. Mickey hadn't seen his parents in years. Both are products of extremely dysfunctional families. But, when it comes down to it, they just want to be loved. They find each other, and there you have it. Killing becomes their ultimate aphrodisiac, as they, in their own way, repay society for the cruel hand they have been dealt, while they hang desperately on to one another. "The whole world's coming to an end, Mal," Mickey tells her. Trent Reznor, who's music has become a voice for a lot of young people of this age, captures this in his layout of the soundtrack, and in the music he writes for the movie: "This world rejects me/This world threw me away/This world never gave me a chance/This world gonna have to pay." The movie does an excellent job at parodying the irony that is so present in today's society. It takes this irony to the extreme, making a movie about a serious subject, while attempting to be as unserious as possible. We get a new perspective on how the pressures of the decade are affecting us, and both a humorous and tragic look at those effects firsthand. We are SUPPOSED to like Mickey and Mallory (and not feel guilty for it) because they are in all of us. For some people, that's hard to swallow. To name this movie as one of the BEST, would be to take a little away from it's intent. But to fail to give it credit at all for what it did contribute would be a calamity. Natural Born Killers-- watch it with someone you love. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Reviews: Books: An Analysis of the best Apocalyptic Horror Novel I've Ever Read: The Dead by Mark Rogers (1989, Berkley Books) Reviewed by Black Sunshine "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Revelation 20:12-15 These are the Biblical scriptures used as the premise for this horror novel, parts of which are quoted on the back of the book itself. An end-of-the-world novel with the horror aspects focused on (i.e. walking corpses, Hell and its keeper, Legion), it can most closely be associated with a type of unveiling apocalyptic literal aspect, with the Bible of course being the text prophesying the end results. The interpretations taken from the Bible result in an "entire history" evolution, in which all the "signs" of the Final Judgment are spelled out for the reader in the first hundred pages. The second hundred involve the handful of unlikely survivors rehashing the Bible, discussing different religions and trying to come to terms with what has happened to the world, and the final three hundred pages revolve around the character's battles to survive in a world- turned-hell, which leads up to a final showdown between good and evil and the answer to the ultimate question for the characters: what will their final judgment be? Will they go to heaven or to hell? When Gary's father dies, he and his wife must travel to his hometown for the funeral. That is when the "signs" begin. Gary dreams of his Final Judgment. His dream can be intensely described as standing naked on a dark plain, while dozens of corpses rise from the ground beneath him. When he sees a large light in front of him, he is sure that it is God. He watches as the corpses around him are either clothed in flesh, or sink to their knees in defeat, depending on how they are judged. He hears a voice speak to him that says, "You have been weighed in the balance and found--" Then he awakens to an earthquake that stops as suddenly as it started. He discovers that his wife has had the same dream. The news is full of tragedies the next morning: planes dropping out of the sky and hundreds dead. When his mother does not awaken, he enters her room, only to find her missing. After reporting it to the police, they reveal that they have had several missing persons reported since early morning. More planes continue to crash around the country, and airlines begin grounding their flights. Car wrecks (due to mechanical failure) begin to multiply dramatically, as well as a train wreck right in Gary's hometown, and there is an article in the newspaper about the Final Judgment dream: one thousand people had been selected at random and ALL had had the dream, only some had been pronounced guilty. TV networks have reported communication breakdowns and failed computer systems. There is also reported fish and wildlife kills and a chill in the are; astronomers are reporting a drop in the sun's radiant energy. Gary himself is an agnostic, and refuses to listen to his wife that all of these odd circumstances are related. All of this begins to occur from page one, setting the scene for the remainder of the novel. Fast-paced and rarely a dull moment, this novel surprises with both it's traditional use of apocalyptic interpretations and it's original plot twists into a very ancient idea. This is the "thinking" man's or woman's horror novel. Gary's brother happens to be a type of connoisseur of most modern religions, and his questions and answers propose a lot of different insight into the theological question of apocalypse. A lot of thought went into this area of the novel. Several valid points are made concerning Biblical apocalypse, many of which I have never heard of or thought about before myself. But it IS a horror novel, and it does satisfy. The aspect most closely focused on, of course, is the walking corpses. There are moments in the novel where the questions (why are the dead walking again?) are left behind for sheer horror. These scenes read like you are watching a movie, with lots of description, action and original and vivid settings-- there was a real fear invoked in me as I read. An example? The train wreck near Gary's home town. No survivors and over three hundred bodies contend with. The funeral homes already have their work cut out for them from the other tragedies, so a decision is made to store the three hundred bodies in the high school gym overnight. A security guard is sent to watch over them. Here, Rogers devotes an entire chapter to the guard's demise. It is inevitable that he will die at the hands of the corpses in the gym. But the way he sets up tension with a slow, subtle pace makes for a genuinely scary and exciting scene. In step by step sequence, first is the emphasis placed on the guard's isolation. Then having him hear noises, but not see anything unusual. Next, having him look in on the bodies again and see a sheet has moved slightly. He reasons that it's kids wanting to see the dead bodies-- no fear (but we know differently!). Then we get our first look at a corpse and a look at HIS fear. Next, we get anxious as the guard gets away-- at first. We get a chase scene. We end up with a situation in which the guard is unable to leave the building. Helplessness sets in. I actually felt the panic of the guard when he realized he wasn't going to get away. Then we get just enough gruesome details of his death to get us cringing. True terror at it's best. The book is full of scenes like this. Between these scenes and those containing the dialogue of the characters as they discuss their predicament, the novel reads extremely fast. The end comes almost too quickly and is able to both keep up with and satisfy the rest of the book. The characters are real enough and act as you'd expect them to in a world gone crazy. The main thing I liked about this book was the open- endedness. Rogers took off running with an idea based on Bible scriptures, and I wasn't quite sure where he would go next. The possibilities were nearly endless! The rules of the real world no longer had to apply and the characters were both inhibited by the mechanical failures and released from normal laws and morals. This made for fascinating scenarios. The direction Rogers decided to take the book leaves nothing to be desired. Speaking of Rogers, though of course, I can't be sure, I'd be willing to bet this is a pen name for a more popular author. Besides the fact that Mark Rogers an extremely common name, consider that there have never been any other books written under the name. The book is just too good for a one-time author. Even though it never received much fanfare when it was published and released, it would be only a matter of time before this person became well known-- IF he kept writing. IF he was real. There is also a brief mention of Stephen King and his novel, "It," (neither the author nor the book are flat-out named, however) which one of the characters in "The Dead" is reading: "The book was a big fat wad by one of his favorite authors, a man who, regrettably, seemed to have been losing his mind lately. Jeff had slogged almost to the end before learning that the menace, which adopted such less-than-terrifying forms as Michael Landon in I Was a Teenage Werewolf, could be defeated by belief in anything. Faith in the Tooth Fairy would work... [when] it became clear that the monster was actually a giant (shivers!) spider, he tossed the book back in his lunchbox..." Not very flattering words, to say the least. The style of "The Dead" is definitely not King's. A rival author perhaps? Who knows... If you have not read this novel (which you probably haven't), I suggest you find a copy and devour it quickly. If you think all the end-of-the-world novels are the same, this one should surprise you. Not to mention scare the hell out of you. This is a genuine one-of-a-kind book. Despite the fact that it's by a (supposedly) unknown author, it definitely deserves to be looked at. @ 1995 by Black Sunshine ------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Deus-X" by Joseph A. Citro. Twilight Publishing, 1994. Joseph Citro is a terrific writer. He is one of the most underrated horror authors around. With "Deus-X" he puts an end to that. From now on when other horror authors think of his name they will think of this one book and just sigh knowing that they themselves could never have written it. Everyone I talk to who really knows horror always says this is Citro's breakthrough novel, the one that will make him a mainstream author. Well go ahead and try to find this book near you, I can almost guarantee you won't be able to find it. This one is only sold at horror bookstores and its on a limited run and the run has already ran out. Meaning, there not going to make any more copies of this book available. The book is a great big hardback that goes for $25 and is worth every penny of that. There is also a limited which is autographed and I think it goes for $65. Get the $25 version. Citro is known for his horror novels about Vermont. Whether we're talking about "The Unseen", "Shadow Child", or "Dark Twilight", you can be sure that when you buy a Citro book your going to be scared and your going to be entertained. Citro writes very clean and to the point, knowing when to show character and when to show horror. His stories usually have a large amount of fantasy mixed in with his horror. And when I think of moments in books that have really scared me I can't think of many, but I do easily recall a scene in "Shadow Child" that gave me chills and made me put the book right down and try to go to bed. "Deus-X" is horror, sortof. It's horror, its fantasy, its Sci-Fi, its mystery, its everything. It's about UFO's, religion, other worlds, relationships, children, psychology, you name it, its in there. This is the biggest book (and I'm not talking page size) since Robert McCammon's "Swan Song." There are characters all over the place and things never stop happening. And for those of you who need to be warned, this book tends to be very violent at times, but it only last a second. The memory you have of those events may never go away though. This book is really what Stephen King wishes he could have done with Insomnia. And I love King, but he could never have the control over so much and make it look so easy as Citro does. This book will probably scare you, it will make you think about life in a different way, and most of all it will just get to you, make you think about it on a regular basis. Okay, I'm probably praising the book too much. Let's talk for a moment about what the book is actually about. The book starts off about people vanishing. People are missing all over but there are witnesses. And these witnesses see their friends taken away by bright lights in the sky that turn into the face of God. At the same time the government is working on studying UFO's and a new member of the elite government group is having problems with his job. And so he goes on the run to tell people what the government doesn't want us to know. Three people meet, all with the interest and the knowledge to find out what is going on. And if they can keep themselves from being taken by God or aliens or whatever else is after them, they could save the world. I know this isn't a good description of the book but this one is a tough one to talk about because it is about so much. Go to your local horror store or get a catalog from a good one and see about buying this book if you have the money. Or hope that someday it comes out in paperback. But keep an eye out for the name Joseph Citro. He may be big some day. The Stranger --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Games Horror Computer Game Reviews By Black Sunshine "The Legacy: Realm of Terror" Microprose, 1993 This game was similar to the plot of the 1992 game, "Alone in the Dark." You're alone in an old house that seems to be leaden with ghosts and monsters. You don't know exactly why you are there or what you are looking for. You wander around, killing the adversaries and finding clues that will help you figure it out and solve the puzzles as well. Your playing screen is divided up into at least four sections: one that displays your character, one that displays the room you are in, one for text, and one with the directions you can go. I'm not particularly fond of this type of set up. I'd rather devote my entire screen to the room I'm in. I don't need to see my character. But, that's just me. The graphics, were, however, pretty good and the monsters were, for the most part, vivid and horrifying, especially with the sound effects. The game tends to get a bit repetitive at times, and with so many different "windows" it takes awhile to learn the commands for doing everything (which I don't like) but once I did, the game then became engrossing. It combines a good mix of adventure and skill/arcade. It's certainly not the highest quality game or the most original, for that matter, but it will provide you with several hours of relief from boredom. I know it sounds like I didn't like this game very much, but it's just that I'm spoiled to CD ROM games now. *grin* Overall, this IS a fairly good game. "Dracula Unleashed" CD ROM version, Viacom, 1993 This game uses real actors and over 90 minutes of video to tell the story. The object is for your character, Alexander, to discover who is Dracula and destroy him before the end of the fourth day. You will visit many places, such as people's houses, bars, shops, the post office and a sanitarium. Every time you enter a new place, you watch the scene on the screen, and therefore meet new characters, learn of new places, get new ideas about where to go and what to do. The acting was pretty good, and I was intrigued by the plot idea and this new way of playing, however the game was extremely hard and became tedious when I had to watch the same scenes over and over and over again. If you don't have the right object from your inventory in your hand when you visit somewhere, you may end up with a different outcome, one which is undesirable most likely. The bad thing is, you never know which item you should have with you when you go somewhere, if any at all! So you end up watching the same scenes numerous times, trying to get the right thing to happen. There's almost no way to tell what that right thing is. I have tried playing this game several times and cannot get past the second day. As I said, it's a very interesting and well-thought-out game, I just lost interest after having to repeat scenes and getting nowhere. I hear there is a hint book out now. Perhaps I should try it again. The sound effects and video (which both play like a movie) are well worth that. @ 1995 by Black Sunshine ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Writer's Block By Black Sunshine How to Sell Your Novel (or your novel idea) Okay, you've written a book. Or you're going to. Or you want to. The plot is so brilliant and original, you know that it would make the New York Times bestseller list and everyone would love it-- if only you could get it published. Sounds easy, right? Send your book or your idea off, then just sit back and wait. I wish it was that simple. Trying to sell your novel takes a lot of time, patience and effort-- and can even become quite costly. Why is it so hard to get published??? Well, consider the fact that on the average, over 5,000 novel concepts of novels are submitted by previously unpublished authors to each publishing house every year! Most of these will buy only around 50 novels in that same year; the very large ones may publish up to a hundred. What this means is that only about 1-2% of those being sent in will get published! The odds are seriously stacked against you (and me). But if you're serious about this, your book could be THE ONE! Still want to do this? Okay. I've put together a chronological list of things you should do to help the process go smoother and to maybe even help your novel get noticed. No, I haven't sold a novel, but I'm working on it. *grin* The things I list here are some of the most important and informative suggestions I've picked up in various writing classes, seminars and books. Try some or all of them. (1) Register your book with the US Copyright Office. Anything you write is automatically "copyrighted" the minute you put it down on paper (or computer screen). However, that doesn't save you if someone steals your idea. Unfortunately, there are publishing companies who can and will try this. Write to: United States Copyright Office, Washington, D.C. 20599 for more information and an application to register. (2) Decide if you want to get an agent. Some people say agents make it easier, some say agents don't help. Sometimes publishing houses won't look at unrepresented material, other times agents can't get any farther up the ladder with your work and you still have to pay them. It really depends on your personal preference. How much control do you want over it? Would you mind giving up a percentage of your profits to an agent? Are you comfortable letting someone else handle this aspect of the process? (3) Research potential markets. Whether you are researching agents or publishing houses, you only want to send to those who are looking for something similar to what you have or else you are just wasting your time. Where to look: any writer's market book, Writer's Digest magazine back issues. Things to look for: genres accepted, percentage of new writers accepted, reading dates, WHAT THEY WANT TO SEE WHEN YOU SUBMIT (some only want an outline, some sample chapters, some the whole book). Go to the library and find books that are similar to yours in style, genre or technique. Who published it (or represented it)? There's a market. (4) Make your sales pitch. Whether you are just querying or sending a cover letter with other items, it is your letter to the editor or agent that will probably be looked at most (especially if it arrives alone). You have to believe in what you are trying to sell, without being arrogant or vague. First paragraph should always be specific in describing the genre, target audience, length and the fact that you want them to consider buying it. The next paragraph should be a synopsis, however, don't go into too much detail and don't give away the ending. Give them just a taste to pique their interest. Later in the letter, give them actual reasons why YOU yourself are excited about your book. Relate it to current events or trends (but don't date it by getting TOO trendy). This will help them see the immediacy of your novel, why it's going to make money. In your letter, you also want to emphasize that you are flexible as far as editing, revising, etc. Thank them for their time. Close the letter. Oh, and you want to do all this as briefly as possible. (5) Put together all the materials. Depending on what the editor or agent wants to see, this will vary, however, the most common combination is an outline and three sample chapters. Your outline may be 20-30 pages long in itself. It's basically just a VERY condensed form of the novel. When you send sample chapters, always send consecutive ones. The first few are best, but not mandatory. Make your submission appealing. Type the editor or agent's name on an envelope, put your cover letter inside that and paper clip it to the outline. Put all this in a conservative-colored (beige, brown, black, navy) folder before you stick it in the envelope you are going to mail it in. Always put a self-addressed stamped envelope in as well, even if you don't want your stuff back. I shouldn't even have to say this. (6) Go mail it. Copies and postage so far for one novel alone have run me up into the $200 range. Sending off a novel proposal packet such as the one described above costs nearly $3 each time. If you want it back, there's another $3. Decide whether it's cheaper to make more copies of the same items or to have them returned to you in the mail for use again. Oh yeah, and even though a lot of agents and publishing houses will say "No simultaneous submissions" (which means don't send off to more than one editor or agent at the same time), do it anyway. Remember the 1-2% acceptance rate? The chances that two editors would want your book at the same time are so close to zero, there is nearly the same possibility of that occurring as if you didn't send your novel out at all. (7) Keep track of your rejection slips. Yes you will get some. You will get many. You don't have to keep them-- they're usually pretty boring anyway. But keep track of who you have sent off to, when, and what kind of reply you got back. This may take months. Give an editor or agent three months before you write a short follow-up letter asking on the status of your novel (ie. why you haven't heard any reply yet). (8) Don't give up. It's hard not to take so much rejection personally. So far, on my novel, I have received 43 rejection slips. Does that mean my novel is bad? No! Well, maybe,(grin), but not necessarily. A lot of the rejection slips were not actually rejection of my work; I was told by several publishing houses that their publishing schedule was full and they could not accept anything else for x amount of months/years. Nothing you can change about your book will fix that. It takes persistence and an invincible drive to succeed. BUT IT CAN BE DONE. Well... there you have it: the not-so-simple process of trying to sell a novel. The most important thing to remember however, is to believe in what you have written. It is yours and it is worth something. With determination, your book WILL end up in the right place at the right time, and it won't go unnoticed any longer. Send me a copy when that happens. By Black Sunshine @ 1995 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Final Words: Thanks for reading through the Death Certificate. If you have a comment or would like to see your own work published in here, just let me know. Thanks once again to all SAZ members, and to all our HQ's and Distro sites out there across the country. I hope you enjoyed the articles and I hope you enjoyed the LIT's in the pack. Feel free to pass this pack around to friends and love ones. We will see you next month. Soulz At Zero ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your fingers black from ink as your shaking hands glide down the page, trying to see if your name is on the death certificate. The wind screaming against the window, begging to get in, to get to you. And at last you find the dotted line, written in blood the letters that form your name. A sudden gasp caught in your throat, a flicker of the lights until they fade off completely. The cold touch of fingers as a hand reaches across the bare skin of your neck. Goosebumps rise from your neck just as the lights shine on once more. And once again you are alone. Before you lies the death certificate, your name is no longer written. You have escaped death, for now. The Stranger... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (C) Copyright SAZ 1994.