I note that you are putting together another masterwork, entitled American Male Prostitute. Might I suggest that you direct a little of that “research” towards yourself, and your own fantasy life?
- From an angry reader in Great Britain

American Male Prostitute

How I shamelessly promoted my novel with sex, lies, and deceit.

A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

Stuart Martin Berry has only three months left to find a publisher for his first novel. In a desperate attempt to reach his goal he leaves his home to live in New York. His wife has given him free reins to do whatever it takes to get a book deal. Her only request was not to give her any details on how he got there. If he fails he will be forced to give up his dream of being a famous writer and take a regular forty hour a week job. For Stuart this is sufficient motivation to start a three month adventure full of sex, lies, and deceit, without losing focus of the ultimate goal. When he finally reaches the finish line, he has evolved and become a top expert in the publishing world.

Note: What you are about to read is the unedited version of a work in progress.

American Male Prostitute

To be continued… American Male Prostitute will have a total of 18 chapters. So, stay tuned, and don’t hold back with comments!

My Research

I have recorded the research for American Male Prostitute in a document titled Writology – The Silent Religion, sub-titled And How Corporate America Makes It A Billion Dollar Business. The chapters in this document are numbered by seizures I pretend to have had. Yes, I do number my seizures. When, according to established industry standards, you are diagnosed as an aspiring, but most likely untalented writer, you either have seizures, or, due to absence of effective medication, you fall back into religion. I, personally, chose seizures, because my God told me not to have other gods besides him. The other god would have been myself, but we’ll get to that later (see Seizure #366 – Discovering Writology).

I have learned early that the best marketing tool for your first novel is the release of your second. Honestly, I wrote my first novel, The Bleeding Hills, because I wanted to get a look and feel of the industry. Nevertheless, my writing is always based on extensive research, and then I refer to Mark Twain who once said, “Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.” Writing The Bleeding Hills was nothing short of exciting, and I am looking forward to more of the same adventure.

Writing the Writology document represents the research for my next novel, American Male Prostitute, sub-titled How I shamelessly promoted my novel with sex, lies, and deceit – You get the picture. The question is, how far would you go to get your book published?

Let me quote author TK Kenyon: “Writing, especially fiction writing, is a tough business to get into and a tougher one to stay in. Generally, neither authors nor publishers make a significant profit until an author’s fifth novel is published. Over 195,000 novels are published by traditional publishers in the U.S. every year. Of those, 70% sell fewer than 500 copies.”

Today’s writing and publishing world is shrugging off the old “exclusive-club” mentality, but it is, by any means, not a friendly place for an aspiring writer. As a matter of fact, the industry has turned into a shark tank. When I refer to “the industry” I mean, among other businesses, the traditional publishers, most of who are struggling these days, but they are not the actual problem. The “shark tank” is dominated by new startups in the industry, mostly vanity publishers, who produce significant profit without delivering the results they promise. It seems that scammers possess a much keener business sense than the traditional publishing businesses, and they are taking the better part of a multi-million Dollar business.

Unfortunately, too many writing sites and especially writers’ magazines (I exclude Poets & Writers specifically from this statement) are too busy spouting wonderful stories about the industry. They live from advertisement and a readership that is represented mostly by unsuccessful writers, the number one target for scammers. These days the best paying advertisers are primarily the previously mentioned vanity publishers, because – Duh! – they do have the means to purchase full page ad space.

In turn – to keep their advertisers happy – the magazines’ task is in motivating their readers to “hang on, because we are confident you will find success eventually.” They continue presenting the good in everything and everybody, and they give you the inspirational tour on a regular basis. My advice to everybody who believes in this motivational nonsense would be to start your own religious sect and call it… Writology. Go and worship yourselves. You’re good at that!

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