Reviews are dangerous

As a reader, I know that reviews are for other readers; they are not for the author. Even so, I couldn't resist the temptation, and was pleasantly surprised to find positive reviews of Safety Net on Amazon. And now I must never read the reviews again because this is a dangerous temptation for an author. Reviews are for readers (note to self: remember this).

I have to agree with the faults mentioned by some reviewers -- I had doubts about the same issues before publishing, and my editor had excellent suggestions I chose to ignore. On the other hand, I'm glad the price ($4.99) seems to be acceptable. I've probably bought drinks at Starbucks for that price, and it's a price point I find tempting as a reader. A dollar or two more makes me rethink my impulse to buy.

One reviewer wondered if NFL players could have such privacy in their lives. A good question! I think it may depend on the team, the location, and the players themselves and how devoted they are to retaining a private life. But it's undoubtedly harder for players in today's social-media and always-connected world to find privacy.

In the news: NFL prospects claim teams asked them about their sexuality.

I spent last weekend talking to some friends about the possibility of attitudes changing in pro sports, and I'd like to think Chris Kluwe is right: as the older generation retires from sports, there will be more tolerant attitudes. But news like this proves there is still a very, very long way to go.

Book behind-the-scenes:
* The first scene I imagined never made it into the book. In it, Lowell encountered Erick walking his bike across campus in the rain. They walked together and talked and it was to be the first moment when Lowell understood his feelings for Erick. I never wrote this scene because the book took a different shape.
* I wasn't sure how the book would end and if Lowell and Erick would stay together until I was perhaps 75% finished with the first draft. There was a long interval when I was afraid no one would end up together and it was going to be a very unhappy ending.
* As is likely obvious in the book, I fell in love with Candace. Originally she wasn't going to be a major character, but a summer fling for Erick. I quickly realized Candace wouldn't stand for being a summer fling, and it was also out-of-character for Erick to drift in and out of a relationship so quickly.
* I can't decide whether to love or hate Erick's mother. Either way, I'm extremely thankful that she's not my mother.

Relevant reading

Here's a timely interview relevant to the later chapters of Safety Net:

"Necessary Roughness" Goes Gay: http://www.buzzfeed.com/kateaurthur/necessary-roughness-goes-gay

Book is live!

The book, called Safety Net, is available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B8U421O (Kindle format only) and at Smashwords.com (ePub and other formats): http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/281717  Both sites offer free sample downloads of the beginning chapters.

I love the cover art! I had the good fortune to get the very talented x_art to design the cover. And after beating my head against the wall to try to write a book blurb, I was saved by my editor and my friends, who swooped in with the perfect summaries.

A short list of acronyms and football-speak used in the book

For basic American football concepts and definitions, such as "quarterback," "tight end," "receiver," etc., I highly recommend Wikipedia. It has good explanations of most terms.

AFC: American Football Conference, one of the two conferences comprising the National Football League (NFL). The other conference is the NFC, the National Football Conference.  

BCS: Bowl Championship Series. A system for selecting the ten top-ranked college football teams to play in five postseason bowl games: the Rose Bowl, the Orange Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, and the BCS National Championship Game.

The BCS bowls are considered the "elite" games featuring the best teams in the country, but there is endless criticism of the BCS system and its preferential treatment of certain athletic conferences and its circular reasoning in ranking teams ("teams playing in BCS bowls are the best teams because they play in BCS bowls").

D: defense; the defensive line; the defensive players.

D-Line: the defensive line.

ILB: inside linebacker.

NCAA: National Collegiate Athletic Association, the association that regulates and oversees college sports in the United States.

Athletic programs are required to follow NCAA rules and regulations. NCAA violations can lead to a range of penalties and sanctions, including shutting down a program entirely. Some recent examples of NCAA sanctions against football programs are the Penn State case and the 2010 sanctions against the University of Southern California.

NFL Combine: an annual event for college football players entering the NFL draft to undergo physical and mental tests and meet with representatives from NFL teams.

O: offense; the offensive line; the offensive players.

O-Line: the offensive line.

OLB: outside linebacker.

OTAs: organized team activities (often mandatory) for players on NFL teams.

Pro Day: an exhibition of athletic skills held on a college campus to showcase its football players entering the NFL draft. Representatives from NFL teams and members of the media attend to evaluate the draft prospects.

PWAC: Pacific West Athletic Conference (a fictional conference).

College sports are divided into conferences. In football, the teams that win their conferences usually go on to play against other conference-winning teams in postseason bowl games. Although all teams want to win all their games, a win against a conference opponent has more weight than a win against a non-conference opponent, unless the non-conference opponent is a dominant or powerhouse team.

QB: quarterback.

QB1: first quarterback on the depth chart; the starting quarterback.

RB: running back.

redshirt: a player on the college team's roster who is not a starter and does not play in any games.

A redshirt freshman is a player who spent his academic freshman year on the sidelines. This extends his eligibility to play at the college level for five years (4 years eligibility+1 redshirt year). A player who is academically a senior (in his 4th year at college) who redshirted for a year is called a redshirt junior because he's eligible for another year athletically. Redshirt seniors or fifth-year seniors are players who redshirted for a year and are playing in their final year of eligibility.

safety net: a receiver the quarterback can throw to when his other receivers aren't open; a quarterback's preferred receiver.

SC: University of Southern California, known for its historically strong football program. Also known for periodically violating NCAA regulations to build up its athletics (particularly football) programs. A.k.a. USC.

State: statewide high school football championship games.

TA: teaching assistant.

TD: touchdown.

TE: tight end.

WR: wide receiver.

Print vs. ebook

I heard some interesting information from a university press. This press recently started a line of shorter (~100-200 pages) scholarly books with the intention of offering them as ebooks only, priced attractively. They got some inquiries about print copies, so decided to use a print-on-demand model. The ebook sold for less than the print-on-demand hardcopy. Even so, the print versions outsold the ebooks by a huge margin. Some of the books were on the reading lists for massive online open courses, and even though purchasing the ebook meant instant access to the text, the publisher sold three times as many print copies as ebooks.

I wondered if it was the nature of non-fiction, scholarly material, or perhaps the demographics of students taking open online courses. From my own ebook reading, I know books with footnotes can be a pain; it seems no ebook reader software handles them nicely. But I love ebooks otherwise. Saves bookshelf space, and I can carry a library with me when I travel and read what I'm in the mood for, not whatever I threw into my carry-on bag.

Manuscript: Completion!

The manuscript is complete! There is a beautiful cover! ISBNs have been purchased! As soon as I (a) get some details back from my cover designer and (b) sit down and thoroughly read the Amazon "publish with us," the book will be ready for primetime, in Kindle and E-Pub formats. So excited! I also need to ask my editor for feedback on the blurb I wrote. Writing a good blurb is definitely a specific skill.

It's good to have the excitement of the getting the book out now that the college football season is over. All the activities leading up to the NFL draft are interesting, too, but nothing is better than a game, of course.

Manuscript: Rewrites!

This week I got the manuscript back from my editor and had a long phone call with her about structure. Then another long phone call with a supportive friend who helped me bounce ideas back and forth. I've finished the copy-editing corrections and now it's time for rewrites. Eeeeek and/or yay? It'll be interesting to get close to the characters again after all this time. I started the manuscript last Thanksgiving. Time flies.

Ambient reading:
Take Your Eye Off the Ball: How to Watch Football by Knowing Where to Look by Pat Kirwan.