Hired Gun: The Life of A Sparring Partner

by Tom Schreck, author of Getting Dunn and The Vegas Knockout

In my latest Duffy Dombrowski mystery, THE VEGAS KNOCKOUT,  Duff gets hired as the sparring partner for a Russian heavyweight in Las Vegas. I'm a pro fight judge and as a judge I'm around the game but I don't know a lot about the business end of hiring and working with sparring partners.

Luckily, Iceman John Scully, a retired world class fighter, who fought for the title a couple of times himself, helped me out. Scully still gets in the ring but most of his energy is around training fighters and working for ESPN doing boxing commentary.

Ice wouldn't be considered an average sparring partner. He was used by the very, very best in the game.

How do you get hired? Who makes the call?

ICE: Almost always it is a case of where the fighter or his managers gets a call from someone representing the fighter who needs the sparring. I can think of a few times when I made my own opportunities, though. Back in Atlantic City in 1992, for example, I ran into Jackie Kallen in the lobby of a hotel there and I told her if she ever needed sparring for James Toney I would be more than willing to take the trip. She took my number and a few months later she did call and I did end up going out to Michigan on two separate occasions to spar with the champ as a result of that.

How much sparring do you do?

ICE: I have always been one to do a lot of sparring, even when I didn't have a fight coming up. I didn't box as a job, as a means to make money. I boxed for the same reasons then that I do now to this day. Because I love to box. I sparred 711 rounds in 2009. That's about 200 rounds more than my previous high for one year. I've been sparring hundreds of rounds each year since 1984.

Not to be personal--but is the money good? Can guys make a living just being sparring partners?

ICE: Some guys, if they aren't married and don't have children, sure. I remember back when Tyson was champion there were certain heavyweights around who used to travel with him for five weeks at a time and they were making one thousand or two thousand a week plus all expenses paid. You do that three times a year, on top of all the other sparring you pick up in between and they were doing okay. Plus they often used to get opportunities to fight on his undercards and they made more money for that, too.

What are the sparring rules--do the champions treat partners well? Do they ever take cheap shots, wear lighter gloves? Hit off breaks, low etc...

ICE: I've never encountered anyone who was dirty like that, no. I mean, they know they have to treat these guys with some respect because otherwise they wont come back in the future and then they wont be able to get the work they need out of them. Every gym is different though. When I was with James Toney, for example, he likes to talk a lot of trash during the sparring and he never ever touched gloves before or after a round either. Most guys touch gloves but James, he never did. He liked to talk trash and make it rough on there. He wasn't friends during the sparring at all. Before and after he was your best friend but once we hit the gym it was all business.

Do you get treated with respect or are you treated as equipment?

ICE: I would say most guys who go to spar someone in a camp get treated with enough respect. I've seen occasions where the fighter wasn't exactly treated as one of the champ's best friends but he wasn't treated badly either. Sort of indifferent. For the most part it was fine. I can remember times going to spar with Vinny Pazienza and after the gym we'd stay and sit around talking for an hour about boxing. Another time he took me to his house and cooked dinner for Kevin Rooney and I. Now you may not get a home cooked meal out of most guys but for the most part they are at least cordial to the guys who come in to work with them.

Is it tough on the body...head?

ICE: It's tough on both, sure. These guys are world champions or top contenders, among the best in the entire world. They pay you to work with them and they want every pennies worth.

What's the psychology of it...what's it like going to work to fight the best p4p guy...all week long?

ICE: For me personally it was always a spectacular time. I loved every minute of it. I used to go box with some of the best guys on earth and I looked at it as an honor but also as a way to prove myself, either to the guy I was boxing or to myself. I've always been a fan first so getting to spar with an elite world champion on a regular basis was great for me in every way. I would take it seriously. Each night I would go back to my room and think long and hard about the sparring that day, what could I do better the next day. I was always trying to figure out how to win the rounds in my head. It makes you better, definitely. It puts you on a different mental level to know you're in there every day swapping shots with a legitimate world champion

I asked a question wrong...When you are working as a sparring partner how much sparring will you do? every day? How many rounds when you spar? is it always all out?

Ice:Every boxer is different. Some guys like to spar every day, some like to spar every other day. If they have several partners then you may only have to do 3 rounds in a day. Or if your work is better or if your style is more similar to the upcoming opponent than you will do more. I used to spar ten rounds regularly with Vinny Pazienza. With James Toney I usually did six rounds at a time but the rounds with him were always longer than the standard three minutes.

Its not always all out but sometimes it is. Depends on the day and the guy. Vinny was always ready go all out on a moments notice for example.

Step Away From the Desk

 Guest post by Kelly Miller, crime fiction novelist

I’m sure you’ll all agree technology has made the writer’s life easier. No more trips to the library, just Google it. No more visits to the courthouse, instead check records online. Now that we have Google Earth is there a need to travel to the corner of Cherry & Main when you can simply power up the computer and visit electronically? But this begs the question, have we become too dependent on technology?

It’s tempting to lean on our computer crutch. A writer has so few minutes free in the day. If we’re not writing our next novel, we’re endlessly blogging, tweeting, and facebooking. So I can understand our dependence on virtual travel. But I say, “Step away from the desk!” 

If you simply rely on a picture on a computer screen, you’ll miss out on the nuances of a location, the flavor of a city. Researching for my debut novel, Dead Like Me, I set up a private three-hour tour of the Tampa Police headquarters. It was the best thing I could have ever done for my novel. I like to keep my stories as factual as possible so I wanted to record everything. Like the fact that the homicide department is on the eighth floor and how the precinct has a nondescript smell. Unless of course, you’re on the fourth floor when seized marijuana plants are drying out. 

As a crime fiction writer, police anecdotes and rookie mistake stories are golden. When I toured the homicide department, I discovered the guys had played a practical joke on one of the detectives. They turned his desk into a boat, attaching a steering wheel to the end of the desk and PVC piping to the top creating a bimini. A steel cleat was even mounted right in the middle of his desk. Of course this was too good to pass up, so I included it in my novel. These are all things I never would have found out through interviews or sitting behind my computer. 

How about you? Do you rely heavily on your computer for research, or do you get out from behind your desk and travel, soaking up the local flavor of a location? Or maybe you use a combination of the two approaches?

Kelly Miller’s first novel, Dead Like Me, debuted November 29. To purchase a copy, visit www.blackrosewritingbooks.com. You can learn more about Kelly by visiting her website at www.kellymillerauthor.com or her blog at http://apps.kellymillerauthor.com/blog.

QUICK! DON'T BLINK!

by Peg Brantley




Out of the fifteen books on the New York Times Best Seller List for June 4, 1961, eleven of them had been on the list for ten weeks or more. One had been on the list for forty-four weeks, another for eight-one weeks, and a third for ninety-five weeks.

-->Fast-forward--> to the list for January 1, 2012. Out of the fifteen books, only two of them had been on the list for ten weeks or more. One for ten weeks and one for twenty-two.

Seth Godin wrote on his blog recently, It's not unusual for a movie or a book or even a TV series to come and go before most people notice it. Neophilia has fundamentally changed our culture. He goes on to say, The result is that there's an increasing desire, almost a panic, for something new. Yesterday was a million years ago, and tomorrow is already here. The rush for new continues to increase, and it is now surpassing our ability to satisfy it.

In 1961 both novels and their authors could actually have a run. Runs that could last for months and even years. Today? Not so much.

Seth concluded his post with this: The real opportunity, I think, is in trying to build longer arcs. Now that the cycle of new is eating itself in a race to ever-faster, there's a bigger chance to make long term change by consistently focusing on what works (and what's important), not what's new and merely shiny….What's important, what's always important, is useful change.

The application of this interesting observation is the trick. How can we extend whatever arc we have?

I see two things for authors today. One is to reflect social issues or difficult topics in our books. Not necessarily in a direct or preachy way, but in a way that matters to people. In a way that gets them to nod their head and consider their reaction. The second is to consistently deliver quality stories. An author who made the best seller list in 1961 may have been able to wait three or four years between books because their name wouldn't have been lost and forgotten after a couple of months.

What do you think would build a longer arc?

(And for those of you who are curious, the books in 1961 I highlighted above were at forty-four weeks, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee in the number 2 slot; at eighty-one weeks, Hawaii by James Michener as number 5; and at a whopping ninety-five weeks, Advise and Consent by Allen Drury as number 11. The 2012 snapshot in time had The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks in the number 6 position after being on the list for ten weeks, and A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin as number 14 having been on the list for twenty-two weeks.)

Better To Be Lucky, Or Good?

A guest post by Michael W. Sherer

Thriller writer Stephen White tells a wonderful story about how he came to be a NYT best-selling author. His first Alan Gregory novel sold well enough in hardcover that his publisher was pleased to make an offer on his second book, and that sold better than the first. The publisher’s lead title for the month White’s second book was supposed to come out in paperback was behind schedule. In a meeting to decide which book should take its place, his publisher’s editorial staff discussed everything but. Right before the group broke for lunch one of the editors piped up and said, “What about White’s book?” Heads around the table nodded, and rather than delay lunch, they decided on the spot to make White’s book the lead title the month of its release.

Six months later, when White flew to Pasadena for his first Bouchercon (my first, too, and I think Patricia Cornwell’s first as well), he saw his book prominently displayed in the airport bookstores. A print run of 400,000. Serendipity, he says. But was it? White is an extremely talented writer. Though his second book wasn’t originally intended as a lead title, surely his third or fourth book would have been chosen. He’s that good. But in his case, he was in the right place at the right time.

My career as an author tracks more like the Albert King song “Born Under A Bad Sign.” You know, the one where he sings “if it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all.” My first publisher, Dodd, Mead & Co., went bankrupt. My second publisher, HarperCollins, passed up its option on my fourth book after seeing one month’s sales figures for the first book. (Obviously, when the second and third books were released Harper didn’t do much to promote them.) My fourth publisher crafts beautiful hardcover editions, but sells only to libraries, offering writers only limited exposure. My fifth publisher sells by direct mail, and though I sold decent quantities of the titles they published, the royalties they pay are laughable.

When my sixth book, a standalone, failed to attract representation despite being the best book I’d written, I knew that I had to come up with something new if I was ever going to land both an agent and a publishing contract. I spent eighteen months plotting and writing the first Blake Sanders thriller, and it took another two years to land an agent and another year after that to find a publisher. During that time, the opportunities to self-publish have exploded, and anyone can get into the business of writing and selling books. Now, luck alone can lead to huge sales. (John Locke might say otherwise, but he does admit he’s not that good.)

There are so many books being published now that even if an author does everything right—gets ARCs out to reviewers, uses social media, attends conferences, blogs, runs contests on his or her website, produces a book trailer, sends out press releases, etc.—there are no guarantees that readers will find the book.

So which is better, being lucky or being good? After all these years, I’m still inclined to believe talent wins out in the end, but I want to be both. Write the best book you possibly can and then be prepared to take advantage of Serendipity when she shows her lovely head. Make your own luck. Then again, we all know crappy writers whose books sell like hotcakes because they were in the right place at the right time.

What do you think?

After stints as manual laborer, dishwasher, bartender, restaurant manager, commercial photographer, magazine editor and public relations executive, Mike decided life should imitate art and became an author and freelance writer like his Chicago-based hero Emerson Ward. Mike has published six novels in that series and the stand-alone ISLAND LIFE in addition to NIGHT BLIND. He’s working on the fourth book in the Blake Sanders series and BLIND INSTINCT, the second in a YA thriller series.

Former public affairs consultant Blake Sanders figures he’s fallen about as low as he can go after losing his job, his marriage and his only son to suicide. But when an elderly customer on his newspaper route is brutally murdered and Sanders becomes the prime suspect, he gets caught up in a maelstrom of murder and deceit involving a pre-Civil War secret intelligence mission, hundreds of millions in buried gold and a bio-weapon that could cause a worldwide pandemic.

When the only man who can help him is assassinated, Sanders finds himself on the run from the cops, a murderer and a shadowy rogue French agent. His only hope of staying out of jail is his ex-wife’s law firm. His only hopes of staying alive are his wits and a mysterious naval intelligence officer. But Sanders isn’t sure he can trust even them.

NightBlind is a breathless thrill ride on and under the streets of Seattle as one man’s quest for the truth turns to a fight for survival.

A New Way To Rob the Poor?

By Andrew E. Kaufman

Simon & Schuster has announced they’re getting into the self-publishing business with a new imprint called Archway Publishing.

Hooray.

Not really. Well, actually, not at all.

Why? Lots of reasons, the biggest of which being cost. The  publishing packages go from $1,599 all the way up to $24,999. How much you get depends on how much you pay--and quite honestly, how much you get doesn’t seem at all commensurate with how much you pay. These are services you can provide for yourself at a fraction of the cost. Besides, I've heard there's a land called Amazon where authors can publish their books free of charge.

And a few of the services themselves seem questionable. For example, the packages don't include editorial assistance; those can be obtained for an additional cost ranging from .035 to .05 per word (So as an example, for a 100,000 word manuscript, you can add an additional $3500-$5,000). They do, however, include what they call an Editorial Assessment, which in reality, amounts to nothing more than a sample edit (typically the first chapter, or about 1,700 words).

Here’s another problem: after paying all that money, authors are also required to hand over a cut of their sales, half, to be exact, for an e-book.

One more interesting (if not misleading) fact: Simon & Schuster will not be hiring new staff to provide these services. Actually, they won’t be providing them at all. The venture will be operated by the folks at Author Solutions (recently bought by Pearson), a vanity press that itself has questionable practices, not to mention a litany of complaints from its customers, not to mention, a statement from an employee, quoted as saying:

 You folks have no idea how deep the deceit runs at Author Solutions.

So really, Simon & Shuster is doing nothing more than lending an air of legitimacy to a company that seems to be lacking any. All this at a substantially higher cost than what Author Solutions normally charges its regular customers.

They do offer the enticement of the “Opportunity For Discovery”.  According to their website, there’s this:

Additionally, we will alert Simon & Schuster to Archway Publishing titles that perform well in the market. Simon & Schuster is always on the lookout for fresh, new voices and they recognize a wealth of potential talent in Archway authors. 

But you don’t have to be an Archway author for that. Simon & Schuster and several of the other Big Six (or soon to be, Big Five) publishers have been grabbing independent titles from Amazon's bestsellers lists for quite some time now. So again, yet another service you can provide for yourself, and again, at a fraction of the cost. 

The short version? This feels like another example of the big publishing houses trying to take advantage of an industry they not only wanted no part of, but also one that came as a direct result of their poor treatment of authors and ones aspiring to be. 

Or even shorter: a new way to rob the poor.

eBookery 101: A Handbook

By:  Kimberly Hitchens is the founder and owner of Booknook.biz, an ebook production company that has produced books for over 750 authors and imprints.

For the next few weeks, during our busy season, I'll be reproducing bits and pieces of our free "eBookery:101" handbook that we give away to all clients and prospective clients.  If you want a complete copy for yourself, you can download it for free from our Knowledgebase, at:  http://j.mp/VzC7dq .  Please note:  this is not a "how-to make your own ebook" manual, but, rather a simple basic explanation of ebook fundamentals and things a beginning epublisher should know.  It's not all-inclusive, and it's not a beginner's guide to self-publishing, either, although we do have some marketing tips in there as well.  Thanks!

What are the basic ebook formats?

There are really only two remaining ebook formats, of the numerous types that were floating around some years ago.

• The first and foremost, in terms of commercial sales, are the Kindle format(s), those being mobi, prc (old) and azw. Colloquially, these are called "mobi" by most people in the business.
• The second, used by Apple, Adobe Digital Editions, Nook, Google Editions, Diesel, Kobo, etc., is epub. Epub allows greater design flexibility than mobi, because it uses a more advanced level of htm.  

 What are the limits of ebooks?

To start with, there are some basics:

• No backgrounds or background images can be used on any ebook that will be converted into Kindle (Mobi) format for the e-ink devices. The newer devices, and the Kindle Fire tablet, do support this capability.
• Text boxes or pull-quotes will have to be formatted differently than in print.
• Images in Kindle e-ink volumes can't be wrapped inside paragraphs, but can have this in ePUB format and in the newer Kindle devices and Fire Tablet.
• You can’t put text over an image in an Amazon Mobi book that will display on the legacy e-ink devices.
• You can only use tables that are about 3 columns wide, and very few rows.

For most things, you can only have a single column of text. No “newspaper-like" columns. (See Figure 1 - Sample of Kindle e-ink device text, Font Size 1.) Some small areas with two column items can sometimes be made to look right by using tables, but it needs to be used sparingly.

Many graphic elements, like characters from foreign languages, can’t be used. Generally, we recommend that most indices be omitted, or simply entered without page numbers. Almost every ebook reader out there has a great search function. This makes it better for your readers and less expensive for you!

Is it true that readers can change how my book looks?

In almost all reading devices, users can change the font size. In the Kindle, the font can be changed from the default size of 3 down to the smallest size of 1 and the largest size of 8. You may see two samples, below, of the same page of “The Prince and the Pauper,” shown at two vastly different reader-selected font sizes. (Click to enlarge images)

Figure 1 - Sample of Kindle e-ink device text, Font Size 1 (From the Prince and the Pauper, formatted by Ignacio Fernández Galván and used with his kind permission)

Figure 2 - a sample page of the same Kindle e-ink text at Font Size 1.  Same book--nothing different except, the human reader wanted a larger font size!

In many ereading devices, the human reader can even change the font style. This will also affect how the book looks, not only in the font. This will change the spacing between letters and words, changing your book yet again.

Next time:  Text reflows, or wraps, and, what about those footnotes?

Thanks, guys!  Remember, if you want the entire 80-page PDF, replete with images and a linked Table of Contents, bookmarks, etc., go here:  http://j.mp/VzC7dq

What's Next for Thursday?

The Woman Who Died a Lot (Thursday Next #7) by Jasper Fforde (Viking hardcover, 20 October 2012).

Reviewed by Marlyn Beebe.

Thursday's had a rough time.  Injured in her last adventure, she[s been quietly recovering at home in Swindon, trying to ensure that her brilliant daughter Tuesday, now sixteen, has a somewhat normal life.  Her son Friday is dealing with the  dissolution of the Chronoguard and looking for a new direction for his life.  And then there's Jenny, the daughter who doesn't exist.

Now, hoping to get back into Bookworld SpecOps, she is instead offered the supposedly more prestigious position managing the All-You-Can-Eat-at-Fatso's Drink Not Included Library.  She's disappointed, but decides to make the best of it, when suddenly she realizes she's not herself but a temporary replacement created by the evil Goliath Corporation.

Running a library is difficult, especially when she has to explain to the board why she's not in favour of dawn raids for library fines and deal with militant Enid Blyton fans who want the books returned to their original non-politically-correct form.

Yes, the storyline is as confusing as it sounds.  That's one of the hallmarks of a Jasper Fforde novel.  Fforde plays fast and loose with time, existence, bureaucracy and religion, but he has a wonderful way with the English language and the many shades of meaning a single word can have.

It's probably best to read this series in order, beginning with The Eyre Affair (2001) in order to become accustomed to Fforde's unique writing style.


The Penguin Group has kindly offered  a hardcover copy of THE WOMAN WHO DIED A LOT for one of my readers.  Please comment below about Jasper Fforde and/or Thursday Next, and make sure to include contact information.  Entries from the US only, please.

We’re All Thriller Writers Now

by L.J. Sellers, author of provocative mysteries & thrillers

Thrilling: adj., producing sudden, strong, and deep emotion or excitement

Doesn’t that pretty much describe all great novels? Yet according to librarians and bookstore owners, traditional labeling defines thrillers as fast-paced, realistic books that focus on plot more than character and have a high-stakes conflict as the heart of the story. And by high stakes they mean a lot more than a single life—or a series of selected lives—must be at risk. Whole cities or ways of life must be in peril.

But now, with many writers labeling their own work, just about any story with a crime or an element of suspense is called a thriller. Just as one example, Amazon’s #1 book on the thriller list is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, a story of a marriage gone bad and a missing wife. It’s all about the characters. Readers love the story and many have labeled it thrilling, and being a fan, I plan to read it. But it's not technically a thriller.

My new book sure looks like a thriller.

As a member of International Thriller Writers, I’ve written many features about new releases for the Big Thrill newsletter. With some, I’ve scratched my head and thought: Why is this called a thriller? The stories usually sound terrific, but still, I would call them paranormal suspense or historical mystery.

But I’m guilty of thriller labeling too. My Detective Jackson series falls under crime fiction, police procedurals, mysteries, and suspense. But a year ago, I added the word thriller to the subtitles (Detective Jackson Mystery/Thrillers) to let readers know that they aren’t traditional mysteries that can be solved at a leisurely pace and that there is plenty of action and a major element of suspense.

Also, labeling the novels thrillers expands their metadata and allows more readers to find them. But are they really thrillers? Traditionalists would probably say no. Murders, assaults, and robberies in a midsized Oregon city don’t represent high-stakes conflict. My new publisher, Thomas & Mercer, doesn’t plan to use the thriller label. So in January, the series goes back to being the “Detective Jackson Mysteries.” But I hope Amazon lists the books in the thriller category, anyway.

Because I want to reach as broad an audience as possible. Still, I wonder how much readers care about labels. Some readers love thrillers of every kind, and they judge a book by its cover, description, and word of mouth reputation, rather than by its category. Other readers actively dislike thrillers, and won’t bother with any book labeled that way. Further discussion reveals that what they mean is they don’t like spy stories or novels with big explosions or long chase scenes. So for some readers, thriller can have a negative connotation.

My website says “Author of provocative mysteries & thrillers” and I’m happy with that. In addition to my Jackson series, I have three standalones—all highly suspenseful, but with no spies, explosions, or car chases.

What does the term thriller mean to you? Does the label make a book more enticing?