What's In a Name

Recently, and I truly can not remember where it was, I was reading about the importance of a title of a book. And although I had not thought about it much before, now that a book is most likely looming on the horizon, titles are becoming much more important to me.

A few days ago I logged on to the Unicorn Books website to see about ordering some books for myself and a few of my customers. As is often the case, I got totally drawn in to the site, checking a variety of categories and browsing titles. The first thing I noticed is that although there are well over a thousand (yes -- you read that right) knitting books listed, almost none of them appear to have any valuable or unique content. Next, way too many books have the same or similar titles. And even worse, an unimaginable number have the word "easy" or "knit" (or some variation) in the title.

So this inspired me to begin thinking about a title, a fabulous title, for the upcoming book on entrelac. Now I am the first to admit, and if you have read many of my posts you know, I am not the greatest when it comes to words. I talk a lot, and I really do love words, but I am not that creative in my usage. This may turn out to be an issue with writing a book, but we will worry about that later! However, I have often found inspiration (or just plain great ideas) from those around me.

So I am starting a contest to come up with a title for my book. You can enter as many times as you wish and if more than one person comes up with the same fabulous title, I will randomly draw a winner. And the prize you ask? You will receive a signed copy of the published book.

So here are the guidelines as they stand at this point:

1. Each entry should be sent as a separate e-mail to me at gwen @ knitability.com (remove the spaces) with a subject of "Entrelac Book Title Contest" and the suggested title as the message.
2. Individuals can enter as many times as they wish.
3. The Author (that's me) and the Publisher (still working on that) will make the final decision, as such, it is possible that no one will win if a suitably outstanding entry is not submitted.
4. Entries will be accepted through June 30, 2008 or until the publisher requires a title (which ever comes first).

Obviously the book is about the entrelac technique. At this point the plan is to start at the beginning and work through to a point of explaining fairly complicated techniques. There will be a variety of projects included from very small and basic to large and complicated with everything in between.

So let's see what you all can come up with! So what's in a name -- everything is in the name. And if you have the right name (or at least title) a free book is it for you too!!

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Can Both Sides Really Win?

As always, I am once again missing my own deadlines, but at least I am consistent! Along with being sick, wrecking my truck, and preparing to have friends in for Thanksgiving, I have been working through contract negotiations for the entrelac book. I have always believed in contracts because in most cases it helps maintain friendships and keeps things amenable between others. But this process has been causing me to think about the phrase -- Win Win.

Contract negotiations are about give and take. For me, the process began with my publisher providing me a boilerplate book contract. I did a quick review with them and then passed it on to my attorney. Not surprisingly, the publisher's contract was weighted extremely heavily in their favor. But why wouldn't it?? After all, it is THEIR contract. So next my attorney and I went over key point that he thought were a bit too much and we developed a "counter proposal". That now has been sent on to my publisher and they are forwarding it on to their lawyer. Honestly, I only expect one or two more rounds of negotiation until we come to an agreement, but is this a WIN-WIN?

The whole concept of negotiation, of give and take, is that neither of us end up with everything that we want, just "enough" of the stuff that we want. So is that really a win? Now I am not saying that we both won't be happy, because we probably will. I just am not sure that I can call it a win. Honestly, this is probably my overly competitive side showing, but a win is a win and a tie is a tie and they are NOT the same.

So it comes back to my original question can both side really win, or is that not what we are actually trying to achieve? SATISFIED-SATISFIED or HAPPY-HAPPY, that I can see being the result of a successful negotiation, but I guess it does sound a bit goofy. Well, even so, here's to HAPPY-HAPPY contract signing in the next few weeks!

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I Want To Be Bill Bryson

This post may not have much to do with knitting, but it does have to do with writing and since it appears that the book is going to happen, I think it is appropriate. If you are not familiar with Bill Bryson -- he is a writer, a very funny writer, who can make almost any topic interesting. He is the first author that my husband and I listened to as a book on CD. It was "A Walk In the Woods" in case you are interested. Bill is particularly unique in that he reads his books himself and from time to time, you can hear a chuckle in his voice as he remembers the particular event that he is reading about. It is quite endearing.

Since our first introduction to Bill Bryson, Arlis and I have been HUGE fans. He has a way of story telling that is engaging, humorous and factual all at the same time. Currently I am listening to "I Am a Stranger Here Myself" which is a compilation of columns he wrote for a publication in Britain. And I realize that I want to write like that too! Once a week, I want to write about some observation I had the previous week (and be funny if at all possible) and later take these somewhat random observations and create a book someone might want to read!

Now I have been told that I can tell a good story. Just ask me sometime about getting to our first trip on a Windjammer Cruise and you will see what I mean. And make sure you have plenty of time. It really cannot be told adequately in less than 30 - 45 minutes and an hour is much better. I was trained by one of the best story tellers ever -- my father. He can tell a 15 minute story to a complete stranger and they will ACTUALLY be happy that he stopped them from their appointed activities to share his tale. But telling a story well and writing a story well, seem like two completely different things!

But you really don't know until you try! So I am going to start writing, once a week about my observation of the process of writing a book on knitting. I think it will be good for me to do -- even if I don't turn out to be very witty -- as it will help keep me focused on the process as well as the product. And the fact is, since this is my first book, I don't really know what to expect. Becoming a wonderful writer like Bill Bryson may be beyond my grasp, but I won't know unless I try. And who knows, maybe secretly Bill Bryson really wants to be a fabulous knitting instructor like Gwen Bortner -- now wouldn't that be a hoot!!!

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