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 SoMa
By Kemble Scott
Kensington Books
320 pp
ISBN: 0-7582-1549-5
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Bringing
SoMa to the World of Print
The author’s first-person account of the four-year journey to make SoMa into a book.
By Kemble Scott
About four years ago, a guy from the publishing world contacted me to suggest I take the work I’d been doing on SoMa Literary Review and turn it into a book. I’d been writing about the sexual foibles of San Franciscans since the site launched in 1999. The stories were shocking and often hilarious, and somalit.com had developed quite a following. About two million hits per year.
A book? Of course, why hadn’t I thought of that?
So I printed out the best of the stories from the web site. I put them in a stack about the size of a phone book and mailed them off to Publishing Guy.
“I didn’t mean you should print out the web site and mail it to me,” Publishing Guy quickly dismissed after receiving the tome. “I mean you should write a REAL book.”
A real book. A novel. With characters, plot, metaphors and meaning. I understood what he meant, at least in the abstract.
I certainly had plenty of material to work with – countless tales of men and women on the prowl for thrills. There seemed to be an endless supply of real life anecdotes to draw from for the book. This was gonna be a snap!
Or not.
It took me a while to figure it out. Not just the plot, the pacing and the characters. What I needed to understand in order to write the book was WHY people explored the extremes. What made them push themselves to their limits? My short stories had only dabbled at the periphery. I needed a much deeper understanding for a novel.
I thought about that for a long time.
About a year.
Then I sat down and wrote SoMa. Once I knew what I wanted to say, a rough first draft was done in about six weeks. Then I rewrote, and rewrote, and rewrote. I found a writer’s group that pushed me to make the work better. When the manuscript got to the level where I felt confident I’d achieved my goals, I sent it out.
But not to publishers.
Instead, it went to dozens of readers all around the US. Friends of friends mostly, so I could get their blunt assessment of the book. I needed to know if SoMa connected with readers the way I intended.
I conducted dozens of interviews over countless hours with those first readers. I was surprised by their reactions. Many wanted to talk about their lives, their loves and their desires – some very personal stuff.
Hey! Why aren’t they talking about the book? Wasn’t that the assignment?
They were talking about the book, of course. It had provoked them. For some, it opened floodgates. I was a complete stranger, and maybe that allowed them to really let go.
The conversations with those first readers showed me where SoMa was making contact. I also discovered where the book needed more work.
So I rewrote, and rewrote, and rewrote.
Eventually, the book was ready to face the publishing establishment. That’s a labyrinth to navigate, and the story of most books typically ends there. The odds against a first novel being published are staggering. If you’ve written an original work that doesn’t conform into an existing popular genre, then it’s likely no one will publish you. Or even speak to you.
I ended up being very fortunate. SoMa was one of those one-in-a-million cases where the manuscript was picked up from a pile destined for the recycle bin by an associate at a major publishing house. No literary agent. No friend on the inside. No face-to-face schmooze at a Manhattan cocktail party.
What happened to Publishing Guy? The one who read my work online and suggested I write a book? He disappeared into the ether shortly after he issued his challenge to me. I haven’t heard from him since. He never got to see the book when it was finished. Emails to him simply bounce back. No such user.
Now I’m wondering if he ever really existed.
Copyright © 2007 Kemble
Scott
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