Blue Note Books to publish Leroy Cooper on Sax

It's All About Leroy
By Susan Cross

Looks like I've found a publisher and chosen a title. Blue Note Books, a small publishing house, is very excited about this project. The title: Leroy Hog Cooper on Sax.

We have set a very aggressive schedule with a target date of October 15 to have books in hand. My to do list is as long as my grocery list but one by one I'm picking the items off the shelf and crossing them off.

Yesterday I sent a "Request for Permission" letter to Perseus Books asking if I could use a quote from page 302 of Brother Ray where Ray Charles speaks about Leroy Cooper and his contribution to Ray's success. My hope is to use that quote on the back cover so that Leroy's fans will know just how Ray Charles felt about his long-time bandleader. The quote also mentions other members of the band, some of whom I have spoken with and have received permission to use their interviews in the book.

Now I'm moving on to requests to use photographs of Leroy taken with Ray Charles during the '60s. Both photographers are French and knew Leroy to some degree. Their pictures would add another dimension to photos taken in the last years of Leroy's life.

I've lined up 3 professional authors/editors to handle that process and next week I'm pursuing the issue of cover art. I want to oversee that process personally since I have a vision for my book.

Check! Check! Check! I have lined up a row of dominoes and when the check marks are next to every item on the to do list and the book goes to the printer, I'm going to tap that first one and watch them all fall, pop a balloon and eat some cake with buttercream frosting. Yum.

Then the first half of the work is done, leaving the second half which may require more work than the initial steps: marketing the book. I have a marketing strategy but am still fine tuning the plan itself which will become an ongoing project. Once the first printing is sold, (hopefully within the first month -- I have been known for my optimism) we will move on to the next printing. By then I will have a stack of excellent reviews and endorsements to select from for the back cover, if I have room.

Somewhere, I have to leave room for my little tiny head shot to give myself some credit. Leroy gave me the story but I'm doing all the work. I don't like the sound of 'ghostwriter' since I am not a ghost, I am a writer. The inability to edit someone else's words is the part of writing a memoir that makes it frustrating, but I can cope. It's not about ego. It's all about Leroy.

Copyright © 2009 Susan Cross – All rights reserved

Writing memoirs

Someone Else's Memories
By Susan Cross

Think it's easy? You sit down with a subject and a list of interview questions. Place the recorder on the table between you. Ask the first question. Now comes the fun part. The subject, especially if that person is a celebrity, answers the question and his response triggers a memory so he keeps talking. Before you know it 3 hours are gone and you have a lot of very valuable information that was related in stream of consciousness in no chronological order.

In my case, my subject, Leroy Cooper, legendary blues, jazz and big band musician rambles on about his 20 years with Ray Charles, most of those years as bandleader. While speaking about one member of the band, David "Fathead" Newman, he wanders back through his childhood when he and Fathead were in the school band together in Dallas. Now we're back in Leroy's childhood, school days and college stories, all of which are interesting and relevant. Guess what? Leroy's old childhood friend was the one that got him into the Ray Charles band?

Somehow this brings him back to Dallas and picks back up at when Leroy got his first big break with the Ernie Fields Big Band, going to New York and then having his musical career being interrupted when he is drafted into the Army during the Korean War.

Well, you get the idea. Obviously, this information didn't all come out of one session, but still, only one interview question has been answered. Starting out with the expectation of spending a few weeks together and gathering the information you need for your book, you suddenly realize that this is going to be a long, long process. You could just stick to the interview but in a case like this, so much would be lost: gigs with other famous musicians; leaving Ray Charles -- the first time, the second time and the last time; the stories of segragation; touring Europe, etc.

Two years later, the recording sessions are done. Another month or more goes into the transcription. You put all the files together and read the draft of the manuscript as it was originally recorded. How did this happen? There is absolutely no order to all of these wonderful stories, and now the work begins.

When a memoir is written by a "ghost writer" the contract between the subject refers to him as "writer" and you as "editor" although it hardly seems fair. He has spent many afternoons telling stories to an interested person (who by now has become a family member) and you have months of intense work to do just to transform the draft into a manuscript that will capture your reader's interest from page one and maintain it through to the epilogue.

There are a lot of steps in between. You have to do fact checking; interview key people who are 'characters' mentioned throughout; find photographs that will be used to illustrate the subject's experiences and get permission from the photographers to use those pictures; approach professional editors (hopefully friends who are successful authors) who will see if your manuscript makes any sense; then decide whether to submit to a traditional publisher or go the new and popular self-publishing route.

Ah, and did I forget to mention the marketing? Yes, you are also responsible for marketing your work. Most tradtional publishers don't have large budgets to market the work of first time authors so that next, very important step is to create a marketing plan and execute it.

And you thought writing a memoir was easy? Maybe it is if it's your own memoir and starts out with, "I was born in (year) in (place) to middle class parents. . ."

There are still other considerations along the way but I'll save that for my second book: How to Write a Successful Memoir.

Copyright © 2009 Susan Cross – All rights reserved

Welcome to my world

In my earlier writing career most of my work was done at night, either longhand or on an IBM typewriter. Finally I was convinced that the new technology would not take anything away from my writing but allow me to write faster, edit more easily and produce essays, stories and poetry in a more efficient manner. Thoughts came quickly then, as they do now, so typing 100 words a minute is definitely an advantage.

Family life changed my habits. The corporate world forced a hiatus in my writing while I raised children and kept house. Those days are gone. With the children grown and gone, I left my cubicle in the marketing department and came back to writing, as I always knew I would. Admittedly, it interferes with my housekeeping. Dinner isn't always on the table at 6 o'clock. Ah, these are the trade-offs but they seem minor.

Being a professional contributing writer to Orlando Home & Leisure (http://www.ohlmag.com/) and GRAND Magazine (http://www.grandmagazine.com/) I am able to make enough money to support my habit. Many of my articles are written around celebrity interviews that I've done.

In the present and immediate future, I am concentrating on my upcoming book, a memoir of a famous person who did not receive the recognition he deserved. This blog will document my work on the book.