"How I Got My Series Published," or "Persistance Pays"

I sent the first book in my mystery series to more than 40 editors, and received mostly form-letter rejections in response.

One day I got a hand-written note from an editor at Dodd, Mead rejecting the book that said, "Keep trying. This is better than most of the stuff that comes in over the transom." Rarely getting that kind of encouragement, I wrote her and asked if she would be interested in seeing another book in the series. She said absolutely. But I didn't have another book in the series. I did, however, have a couple of hundred pages of a book I'd started years earlier but put in a drawer. I pulled it out and considered how to rework it, sat down and hammered out the second book in four months.

Knowing I would be traveling to New York on business a few weeks after I finished the second book, I sent it to the editor and called her to let her know it was on its way and ask her if we could talk about it over lunch when I got to New York. She said, "Sure. Lunch is one of the things I do best."

When I arrived at her offices a few weeks later, she came out to the reception area to meet me, and said, "I'm taking you to lunch." Well, I'd heard that when an editor takes a writer to lunch rather than vice versa, it means Big Contract. After we were seated at a table in the restaurant she dropped the bomb, saying, "I like this, but I'm not going to buy this book, either."

Before my heart fell completely through the floor, however, she went on to explain that she couldn't possibly make the book the first in a series about a Chicago-based character because most of the book takes place in upstate New York. She asked me to send her the first book again so she could take another look. Then she told me that by the way, the second book couldn't possibly be the second book in the series, either, because I would have to establish my hero in Chicago for at least two books before taking him so far afield.

The upshot was that she looked at the first book again, liked it enough to show it around the shop. Dodd, Mead's national sales manager had seen the book when she was with another house (which shows how long the book had been making the rounds) and had begged her former publisher to buy it. That was enough to sway my editor,and they made an offer.

In the meantime, of course, I'd already started in on a third in the series, thinking I had to do another book to take the place of the second in the series. Ultimately, the series was published in the order I wrote it. The moral, though (of this rather long-winded tale) is: You never know. Just keep believing in yourself.

Mike Sherer
www.emersonwardmysteries.com

Walk While Working

Have any of you seen this? Better yet, have any of you implemented it? I think I’m going to ask my hubby to build me one for Christmas. This looks like a fantastic idea…if you search the net there are a lot of different designs that people are using. WorkandWalk.com has a product list. What does everyone do to stay in shape while working at the computer most of the day?

~Aris Whittier~

Sitting at their desks is about the last thing workers would do in Dr. James Levine's office of the future. Instead of being sedentary in front of their computers, they'd stand. But instead of standing still, they'd walk on a treadmill. And instead of meeting around a conference table, they'd talk business while walking laps on a track.

That's exactly how Levine, a Mayo Clinic obesity researcher, and several of his colleagues have been working for the past five weeks or so.

"I hate going to the gym, which may be partly why I'm so interested in this," he said, keeping up a 1 mph pace on his treadmill while checking e-mail and fielding questions from a reporter.

That speed is slow enough to avoid breaking a sweat but fast enough to burn an extra 100 calories per hour, or 1,000 a day, given his average 10-hour workdays, Levine said. And it helps the 41-year-old endocrinologist keep his 5-foot-8{-inch frame at 158 pounds.

"We're talking more than 50 pounds of weight loss a year, if I were to keep my diet the same," he said.

Levine is a leading researcher of NEAT — short for "non-exercise activity thermogenesis" — the calories people burn during everyday activities such as standing, walking or even fidgeting.

A recently published study he led showed that thin people are on their feet an average of 152 more minutes a day than couch potatoes. Levine was brainstorming ways to address that 2½-hour NEAT deficit a few months ago when he had the idea for the "ultimate office makeover."

"The response has to be appropriate for the magnitude of the problem," he said. "And so we really thought, 'Is there a completely different way of working?'"

Within four weeks, his team developed an alternative to the traditional cubicle — workstations that combine a computer, desk and treadmill into one unit. It was a refinement of a desk Levine created for himself about six months ago.

The makeover was relatively cheap. Levine says the 10 workstations cost about $1,000 each — about half the cost of a cubicle — and remodeling the space cost about $5.50 per square foot.

Those who don't feel like standing can always pull up a tall stool to work on their computers, he said, but the environment "sends you this message of 'Walking is the norm. Being upright is the norm.'"

Staying fit doesn't appear to be a major concern yet for Chinmay Manohar, a 24-year-old research assistant in Levine's office. A runner and a hiker, he's a trim 5-feet-8 and 130 pounds.

But he's found Levine's setup keeps him more alert and focused. When he's soldering electronic gizmos, he stands at a raised workbench. When he's computer programming, he walks on a treadmill. Somehow, typing isn't a problem.

"It took me only a day or two to actually get acquainted with the system," Manohar said. "Also, it keeps me fit."

Levine has heard from people like Lois Yurow in Westfield, N.J., who wanted to know where she could get a treadmill computer workstation like his after she saw a newspaper photo of him walking on it.

"I looked at it and said, 'I want one of those things!'" she recalled.
Though the treadmill-workstations aren't commercially available yet, Mayo Clinic's technology licensing people are working on that.

Yurow, 42, edits legal papers in her home office. She's at her desk about six hours straight each day — with breaks to fill her water glass or throw in a load of laundry — until her children come home from school. She also puts in another hour at night after her kids have settled down. "It would be great if there were something set up that would let me be standing up all the time ... and let me get my work done," she said.