Hope Springs Eternal

Writing for enjoyment is one thing. Writing with the hope of getting published is quite another thing; a quite monstrous thing. I've had three publishers request to see my first manuscript only to take a pass. A fourth has asked for it as well as a marketing plan. I'm still waiting for word from them. But that book's not OTR-related so I won't dwell on it. My second manuscript (actually fourth, I guess), however, is OTR-related and has piqued the interest of three presses so far. I've got several unanswered queries still out. In any case, it's a children's book about - of course - old-time radio. Would you believe that only one such book has ever been published? Though good, mine will be better.

On the one hand it's great that so little has been published on OTR for the kids' market. It means I can cover the whole gamut. For that reason, though, it's problematic. There's far too much material to cover in a single book. Jim Cox, one of my favorite OTR authors, has 2-300 pages to talk about one aspect of OTR (the Hummerts, soaps, etc). I'll have - if I'm lucky - 30-40 pages to cover the whole darn kaboodle. I'm going to have to leave out so much great stuff. I hope to include script excerpts and performer biographies (in addition to the primary text) but I'll be only able to do a fraction of those that are worthy of inclusion.

What's a writer to do? Well, assuming a press picks this book up and it sells well enough, I'll write more on the topic. I can be the Martin Grams, Jr.-Jim Cox-John Dunning-Jay Hickerson of children's OTR books. But you OTR fans will have to get out and buy copies for your kids or grandkids.

I'm getting ahead of myself. Seriousl, drop me a line if there's a program or performer that you feel must be included in such a book. Stay posted for details on this little gem of a project (but don't stay too posted; publishers work in timeframes of weeks and months, even years. I won't have any news on this tomorrow).