Self-Published Novel: The Marvelous Effect June 11, 2008

Tavis: Troy CLE is a first-time novelist who’s just launched a series of science fiction and fantasy books for young adults called “Marvelous World.” The first in the series is called “The Marvelous Effect” and was just published earlier this summer. Troy, nice to have you on the program.

Troy CLE: I’m just happy to be here.

Tavis: I’m glad to have you. I’m going to get to that CLE thing in just a moment. Let me start, though, there is so much buzz on this book already and the possibilities and these comparisons. That’s pretty heady stuff. As my grandmother said, “That’s high cotton.”

CLE: (Laughter) Yeah, it is. I mean, of course, you’re talking about the comparison to “Harry Potter” and everything.

Tavis: “Harry Potter,” absolutely.

CLE: The thing is, it’s like an honor for someone to say in the same breath like Troy CLE has written the next “Harry Potter.” That’s cool and everything. But at the same time, as people are finding out, the “Marvelous World” is its own series. It’s in its own class. So that’s why it’s okay because they found out that “Marvelous World” is its own entity and it doesn’t exactly have the write-off or the steam heat of “Harry Potter,” but still it’s all welcome.

Tavis: I want to get there, wherever the marvelous world is. I just like the idea of living in a marvelous world. I want to get there, but tell me about this marvelous world.

CLE: Well, “Marvelous World” is actually the world that we all live in right now in a way because that what is a little bit different about this book. It takes place in East Orange, New Jersey which is my marvelous world, you know (laughter). What happens is, you have this kid, Louis Proof, who is like a composite of myself and little brother.

Tavis: I like that. Louis Proof. I love that name.

CLE: Yes. L. Proof for short.

Tavis: Yeah, L. Proof (laughter).

CLE: What happens is, he gets put into this extraordinary situation where he’s only like thirteen years old and he finds out that it’s basically his responsibility to save the world in a way. It’s very just action-packed for kids and adults who would rather play a videogame than read a book, but it also has its basis in classical literature and philosophy. So it has like everything that was part of my world is in that book.

Tavis: Now I’m glad you said part of your world because you have grown up at a time where you could, probably should, sort of everybody else you know is, playing videogames in the generation that you grew up in. Yet you decided not to play the game in that way, but to write the book. You went the literary route. Why, for you, the literary route?

CLE: Honestly? Because why I did the literary route is based on the fact that when I was little I saw the movie, “The Goonies,” and I wanted to be a goonie like really, really, really bad, but I could only be one in my heart. I was like, you know what? I’m going to write a book that is where I could be the kid going on the adventure. Since I couldn’t be on the goonie adventure, I would be on a “Marvelous World” adventure.

So what happened was with me wanting to write that book, even with me playing all my videogames, seeing all these movies and everything that was so fantastic, so action-packed, that in many ways I wasn’t a part of – well, I was a part of them, but we really didn’t see ourselves.

Tavis: You mean now, ourselves as people of color?

CLE: Yeah. We really didn’t see ourselves, but we still related to them. What I wanted to do was I would write this book and it would be influenced by “The Goonies,” by “Big,” by “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” by all the videogames and everything that I loved as a kid.

But it would be a book that was just so action-packed and everything that a kid that didn’t want to read a book and would want to play videogames instead would just pick this one up. So that’s why I went that route. I wanted to put everything into it.

Tavis: To your point, what do you make of the fact, Troy, that so many kids of color are turned on by these same characters, “The Goonies, “Harry Potter”? I mean, if I’ve read this once, I’ve read a thousand times about Senator Obama, perhaps the next president of the United States, who is trying to find time to get back to Chicago to finish reading the new Harry Potter book to his daughter.

I keep reading that story everywhere. Her dad has read every book with her and she wants her dad to come home to finish reading the rest of the “Harry Potter” series. Here she is, a Black child, but caught up in this “Harry Potter” world.

Coming back to your point now, there are so many kids of color who see themselves get turned on by these stories, but the characters don’t look anything like them. What do you make of that reality? What should Hollywood make of that reality? There’s a whole bunch of kids of color who are turned on by this, but if we gave them something a little different –

CLE: Honestly, that’s a very good question because there’s a lot of buzz in Hollywood about this project right now.

Tavis: Absolutely, absolutely.

CLE: I thought of the fact that, well, I wrote the book so we just could get huge and everything and then the movie would be made after that, but that was not my main goal to write the book. But I thought that I would have to do that for there to be an interest in financing a big budget film like this that starred a kid of color.

What I didn’t realize when I got to that door, the fact that it would be so marketable is because Hollywood understands that there isn’t this in the marketplace right now. So even without it, like being a book or whatever, Hollywood is realizing that we should do this. That’s why a lot of people have been so receptive to it. A lot of big people in Hollywood are just being like, “We need to do this, we need to do this.” It got so crazy.

Tavis: I’m not asking to put names out there, but you’re in town right now, obviously here in Los Angeles, having meetings. Are you hearing the kind of stuff that you want to hear about this thing becoming –

CLE: – I mean, Tavis, it’s like I did all this without an agent. It has got to the point where I was like, “Whoa, I have got to bring professionals in to take care of this.” You got to remember, I’m just a kid from East Orange, New Jersey.

Tavis: From the marvelous world of East Orange (laughter).

CLE: Yeah, the marvelous world of East Orange. I came out here to Los Angeles and it was like, okay, this person wants to meet with me, this person wants to meet with me at the same time. I’m like, oh, God, I don’t want to make a decision, you know. It kept happening and happening. It’s like, oh, yeah, we’re the people behind this major, major franchise. We need to get in touch with you. We need to do this.

I mean, it just came to the point where it just made me feel good that the doors were not closed, that Hollywood was so open to say, “Let’s do this. We love the fact that it’s this.” But at the same time, what kept coming up was that everyone said, “We love the relationship that Louis has with his mother.”

I said that to say that this a humanistic story. It’s not about color. Just the same way “Harry Potter” is not about color and that’s why Black kids love it as much as the white kids. I hope that, because Louis Proof is a character of color, the kids that aren’t Black or whatever can see it as a humanistic story, which is happening because a lot of my fans are white.

Tavis: I totally take your point that it’s not about color and I’m glad it’s not. I’m glad that it’s universal. If Harry Potter can be universal, why can’t Louis proof be universal? I get that, but you also know in the marvelous world of East Orange and in the marvelous world of Black America everywhere, having a good relation with your momma is key, for Black men especially.

CLE: Oh, yeah. See, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my mother just making sure that I was on point. It’s like, “Oh, mom, come on. Can’t you say everything is good?” You know, your mother always reminds you that you’re not doing that right. You know, I’m on top of the world and mom is like, “You know you could do this better.”

You know, you always need that in your life and I’m happy that my mom stays on top of me. That’s why I wrote her the way I did in the book because, like I said, everything that’s in this book is genuine because it’s based on my entire life. There is a real Louis Proof. There is a real Brandon, you know.

Tavis: So you do have representation now?

CLE: Oh, yeah. I got representation now.

Tavis: I was going to say, you’re on PBS in Los Angeles. If you don’t, the phone will be ringing in about thirty seconds (laughter). As a matter of fact, I’m about to go into management my doggone self. If you don’t have an agent, I’ll be your agent (laughter).

Let me go a little deeper now. We talked about Louis proof. Tell me more about what you’re trying to get across in the story. What do you want readers to take away? What’s the message? What are you trying to say to people through the life of Louis Proof?

CLE: Honestly, well, to answer that question, I have to give a little foundation.

Tavis: Go ahead.

CLE: One of the things the book is based on is the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and David Hume. One was about passion and one was about reason. A lot of times, we are driven by passion like, “I just want to do this, I just want to do this” and reason comes in and says, “You know, you need to chill out and this is what you should be doing.” So at the core of it is just the fact that you need to put your life in a balance. You need to stop trying to lose control, stop losing your mind. You know, we got like senators, like Senator Craig out there doing what he was doing, right?

It’s like, “What are you doing? You’re picking up like toilet paper off the floor? What was you going to do with that? What’s going on in your mind? Who does that? You’re losing your mind. You need to read the book and just basically pull your life together.” A lot of people can do that. You know, that’s the message. Who was out here in Hollywood, everybody going crazy? Lindsay Lohan driving down the street all, you know –

Tavis: – which time?

CLE: I don’t know, right? Hey, I got nothing against Lindsay Lohan, but I’m just saying that the bottom line is people need to read the book. Everybody just basically –

Tavis: – it’s about balance.

CLE: Balance. Just pull your life together. You can read the book. Everybody, Senator Craig, whoever has a problem, just read the book and pull themselves together.

Tavis: Tell me some of the other characters beyond Louis Proof.

CLE: Oh, boy; oh, gosh. Like my whole life is in there. Lacey Proof is a composite of three of my little cousins. Brandon is a composite of two of my friends. One of my friends is an interesting person. He bought a Porsche when he was like fourteen years old with cash (laughter) and crashed it and bought another one with cash.

Tavis: It’s the marvelous world of East Orange, yeah.

CLE: East Orange, New Jersey. That’s my man, that’s my man. Who else? You got people in there that are composites of teachers like –

Tavis: – you dedicate the book.

CLE: Oh, yes, to Mr. Dawson. Everybody hopefully has had that teacher in their life that influenced the way that they changed, the way that they view the world. Mr. Dawson was there for me. I don’t know where I would be without him because, like I said before, I would have written this book probably, but I would have sucked. It wouldn’t have been good.

That’s where the allegorical core comes from, what the representation of the Crims symbolize, the fact that Galonious – oh, Galonious is influenced by a real person, a real person. When people read that, they need to know Galonious is out there in the world.

Tavis: As a real person.

CLE: Yeah. I mean, the symbolism of why Galonious is, what is it, trapped in the thought dimension. Everything like that comes from Mr. Dawson.

Tavis: A shout-out to Mr. Dawson and all the other teachers who make us who we are.

CLE: Yes. Love Mr. Dawson.

Tavis: Word up to the teachers in America. Two seconds right quick. CLE. Are you going to tell us one day what that stands for? Not today, but some other day?

CLE: Okay, it’s in the book, it’s in the book. People read the book and they understand what it means.

Tavis: We’ll leave it there then. The new book by Troy CLE, “Marvelous World.” Book one, “The Marvelous Effect.” This book is being compared to the “Harry Potter” series, so now would be a good time to go to the store and get your copy and start stacking up on what may very well become the next big blockbuster series for those of us who love this kind of sci-fi activity. Troy, nice to have you here.

CLE: Thank you, Tavis.

Tavis: All the best to you.

source material: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200709/20070907_cle.html

Author’s website: http://www.marvelousworld.net/

more on the author: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/23marvelnj.html?scp=1&sq=troy+cle&st=nyt

2.   http://www.shp.org/Home/In_Touch/Admin/Latest/News_Briefs/news_briefs.html

For authors with drive and a good story, self-publishing can be the ticket June 8, 2008

For authors with drive and a good story, self-publishing can be the ticket

By CECELIA GOODNOW
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Once there were two fathers in two kingdoms who spun fabulous stories for their young daughters.

Stories in which the creatures were magical, the danger fierce and the day saved — by brave and idealistic girls.

		I

One of the dads grew up to be Seattle City Councilman Nick Licata, now a self-published author eyeing, on the far horizon, a possible career as a children’s writer.

The other, Patrick Carman, is a Walla Walla entrepreneur whose self-published children’s fantasy, “The Dark Hills Divide,” already has propelled him across the threshold of success.

In an auction that ended March 12, Carman clinched a three-book deal with Scholastic worth between $200,000 and $350,000, according to his agent, Peter Rubie.

The message? Self-publishing, historically the poor cousin of the book world, is becoming a more respectable route to an audience, despite the risks and expense.

“I think this is part of a trend that started several years ago with ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ and ‘The Christmas Box,’ among other books,” Rubie said, adding that it’s easier than ever to do a self-published book with a quality look.

“What most writers forget,” he said, “is that the key to publishing is distribution — getting someone to take the book and get it into stores or the hands of your intended audience. The majority of self-published authors fall down badly in this department.”

Of course, it’s the dazzling exceptions that spur writers on. “Eragon,” a self-published fantasy by Montana teen Christopher Paolini, was picked up by Knopf in a three-book deal worth a reported $500,000. Republished last August, it became a No. 1 best seller.

Then there’s Michael Hoeye, who self-published “Time Stops for No Mouse” after sketching out his ideas on a napkin at a Portland cafe. The book rallied enough grass-roots fans that Putnam gave him a $1.8 million deal for three books.

Those successes don’t come easy. Paolini, who reportedly turned down a full scholarship to Reed College in Oregon to promote his book, made 135 appearances in 2002 and sold 10,000 copies before signing with Knopf.

Carman, a self-made businessman, has followed Paolini’s playbook. He poured more than $25,000 into “The Dark Hills Divide,” the first volume in his planned “Land of Elyon” trilogy. He hired top-notch pros to do the artwork, design, editing and publicity, then set up school visits and bookstore signings to stimulate sales.

“We just started creating all this buzz,” Carman said, “and an agent contacted us from New York.”

Judith Chandler of Third Place Books said she was astonished when Carman drew more than 400 kids to an unscheduled appearance in late January, just from the excitement he had generated through school visits. For self-published authors, she said, marketing is half the battle.

“We sold about 180 copies that night,” she said. “That is stunning. I think it could be another one like “Eragon,” easily.”

Fittingly, Carman was speaking to a gym full of school kids when the call came that Scholastic had made a deal. By then, he already had made back most of his money, with nearly 6,000 books sold and a third print run — of 10,000 copies — in the works.

He also had been invited to speak to booksellers attending the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association conference, guaranteeing even more buzz.

“The Dark Hills Divide” grew out of stories Carman told his young daughters, now 7 and 9. It focuses on 12-year-old Alexa Daley, who explores what lies beyond her walled kingdom and stumbles onto a plot to destroy the Land of Elyon from within.

“It’s probably one of the better children’s books I’ve seen in a long time,” said Michelle Price, events coordinator at the Tri-Cities Barnes & Noble, which has chosen Carman’s book as the main selection of its summer reading program.

Scholastic, which plans to unveil the re-edited “The Dark Hills Divide” in hardcover around Christmas, will let Carman reprint it in paperback until November. Then he’s out of the self-publishing business. Fans will have to wait until December 2005 for the sequel.

Licata has taken a more low-key approach. He has done some interviews and a major bookstore appearance, with more in the works. But his real ambitions as an author appear to lie further down the road.

His immediate goal was to revive a 15-year-old manuscript based on taped stories he sent his daughter when she lived in China for a year with her mother. After their return, Licata sought local mentors and spent several years revising and packaging the story. (Karin McGinn, features copy desk chief at the Post-Intelligencer, was hired to do a first edit.)

The result, “Princess Bianca and the Vandals,” is a fast-paced, if still unpolished, eco-wizard story about a girl who rescues her mother and saves her pristine kingdom from marauding, anti-green Vandals.

“When I finished it 10 years ago,” Licata said, “I naively threw it into the mail to some East Coast publishers. But that doesn’t work too well, unless you have an in. I didn’t have the energy to do a full-scale (publicity) campaign. And because so many themes are common to the Northwest, I wanted to have some control over the presentation.”

He said he promised to publish it himself if his daughter graduated from college and he won a second term on the city council — “and those things happened.”

He has sold several hundred copies since October, mainly through his Web site, http://www.princessbianca.org.

The Elliott Bay Book Co. has moved a respectable 20 copies since Licata’s signing there in November, and Amazon picked up the book this month. (Daughter Eleanor, now in Ankara, Turkey, already has plugged it twice online.)

“I don’t expect this book to be a huge critical or commercial success,” Licata said, “but I did want to share a bit of fantasy with others, particularly children, with regards to the world we live in. … Time permitting in the future, I’d like to write more for both children and adults. I have a small drawer full of short fiction pieces and eventually I’d like to get them out as well.”

Even if “Princess Bianca” isn’t destined for the big time, it reveals a lively storytelling talent, honed by Licata’s childhood experience as a campfire raconteur.

“I had dyslexia and I didn’t read until I was 9 years old,” Licata said. “So I made up stories for my peers.”

It also demonstrates a drawback of self-publishing: Without a book editor’s steady hand, do-it-yourselfers are hard-pressed to get the story and packaging details just right. Even Carman’s book, which is unusually polished, has some misspellings, grammatical errors and anachronisms.

As Chandler put it, “Usually when you get a first-time author with a book they have self-published, the quality is suspect, the art isn’t quite right and it ends up with a loving-hands-at-home quality.”

So, is self-publishing the way to go? If you have a good story and a ton of hustle — maybe. Carman said his experience has been “very positive,” partly because of the help he got from Northwest booksellers.

But note this warning from Judith Haut, Random House publicity director: “It really comes down to the book,” she said, “and the talent the writer has.”

 

MEET THE AUTHORS

 

Both Patrick Carman and Nick Licata have local bookstore appearances lined up.

Carman will talk about “The Dark Hills Divide” at 5 p.m. March 26 at Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way N.E.

Licata will read and sign copies of “Princess Bianca and the Vandals” at the following locations: 1 p.m. March 27 at Wit’s End Bookstore, 4262 Fremont Ave. N., and 6 p.m. May 1 at Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way N.E.

 

P-I reporter Cecelia Goodnow can be reached at 206-448-8353 or ceceliagoodnow@seattlepi.com.

UPDATE

How to sell your debut novel: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/01/how_to_sell_your_first_novel.html