Erin Doland is the founder of Unclutterer and the author of UnClutter Your Life in One Week, which seems an appropriate book to talk about in January especially since we all know that I’m cleaning out my closets.
I don’t think Erin specifically meant to address the issue of “how to unclutter your life of random, toxic men” but I’m sure she would approve of my unique application of her advice, nonetheless. Who wouldn’t?
I digress.
I interviewed Erin for my How To Get a Book Deal series at Write to Done. (Part 1 and 2 have run already; 3 and 4 are forthcoming.)
Erin was so charming and wonderful and witty that I thought I’d publish the interview, in full.
Here it is.
How To Get A Book Deal. Thirteen Questions with Erin Doland.
1. Are you a bookie?
(I’m inventing a new connotation for that word. In my world, “bookie” means someone who loves books so intensely that friends and family suspect that nudity may be involved. I don’t actually mean “do you get naked with books?”. FYI. But feel free to elaborate, if need be.)
Erin Doland: I am a voracious reader. I’m obsessed with reading and writing books the way druggies pursue their next high. I’ll start reading almost anything — but finishing a book is a different story. If a book doesn’t speak to me or make me want to learn, I have no problem walking away from it.
2. Was writing a book a long-held, secret fantasy of yours?
(I suspect that Leo Babauta and Mary Jaksch [KD note: the owner and editor of Write to Done] would really appreciate it if you used G-rated words and did not digress into lavish descriptions of any other kinds of fantasies. You have my email address for those. Feel free. Thank you.)
Erin Doland: Before I had a book deal, every night in those moments before sleep, I would stare at the ceiling and feel like I had failed to achieve one of my purposes in life. I wasn’t quiet about this failure, though. Everyone I know was well aware of my feelings of inadequacy over not yet having written a book. In fact, I think my friends are happier than I am now that I have a book under my belt simply because they no longer have to listen to me talk about it.
3. Danielle LaPorte said in a firestarter that her smokin’ hot blog is about finding her people, creating a community, and she hopes that when the time comes, her book will be a best-seller.
Tim Feriss, I’m pretty sure, articulated (and did!) the same thing only with a less poetry and fewer dreadlocks and holy hassenfeffer* has that worked out something fierce for him.
Penelope Trunk, on the other hand, loves her blog because it gets her free fancy laptop bags and oral sex but thinks that writing a book is a time-sink.
Which brings me to my questions: Which came first, the idea for your blog or your book? How did your blog help you get the book deal? Which is your favourite child?
Erin Doland: If it weren’t for my posts on Unclutterer.com there wouldn’t be UNCLUTTER YOUR LIFE IN ONE WEEK. My agent and editor both were fans of my writing on the website, and they wouldn’t have had a clue who I was if it weren’t for the site.
4. Did you approach an agent or a publisher with a book idea or did someone approach you?
(I can’t find a way to make that question sassy or entertaining. It’s all on you, now.)
Erin Doland: My agent contacted me. She read the site regularly, believed there was a solid platform for a book, and helped me develop a proposal that we shopped to editors. My editor is also a reader of the site and “got me” from the first line of my proposal. I feel really lucky to have worked with a team of people who have understood the Unclutterer message from the very beginning of the book project. I feel extremely fortunate to have another medium in which to share the Unclutterer philosophy with an expanded audience.
5. Who’s your agent? Are you still on speaking terms? If I call him/her, will she confirm that?
Erin Doland: My agent is a powerhouse and an incredible advisor. Choosing to sign with her is one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. She’s phenomenal — Courtney Miller-Callihan at Sanford J. Greenburger. If she doesn’t have fond words for me, I might cry in a corner.
6. Did I tell you why I’m writing this piece? I want to write a book AND get it published AND I know nothing about how to do this. Hence: How To Get a Book Deal. Anyhoo, Josh Hanagarne told me that you don’t actually sell a non-fiction manuscript, you sell a proposal to write a manuscript. Is he lying?
(He’s been known to lie for entertainment purposes so I’m fact-checking.)
Erin Doland: Josh Hanagarne has it correct. You don’t write a non-fiction book until a publishing house signs off on the proposal.
7. What kind of research – resources read, people talked to – did you do to prepare to write your book proposal?
Erin Doland: I worked with my agent and followed my instincts.
8. Did you consider hiring a proposal coach?
Erin Doland: No. I didn’t even know there were such things as proposal coaches.
9. So. You wrote a book proposal. Now what?
(By this I mean: did your agent shop it around? Did it go to auction? Did you go to New York and schmooze? Tell us a pretty story. Don’t worry, I’m a lazy fact-checker. See, for example, #6.)
Erin Doland: My agent shopped it, I had some meetings with editors, and I got offers. I picked the offer that was best for me and where I am in my writing career.
10. Is Erin Brockovich your hero? That’s not really the question. That is called foreshadowing. Let’s go EB for a minute and talk numbers:
“How ’bout this for a number? Six. That’s how old my other daughter is, eight is the age of my son, two is how many times I’ve been married – and divorced; sixteen is the number of dollars I have in my bank account. 850-3943. That’s my phone number, and with all the numbers I gave you, I’m guessing zero is the number of times you’re gonna call it.”
Still with me? Your book deal is signed. Visions of spectacular, over-sized but truly, madly, deeply deserved cheques are dancing in your head. What figure is on that cheque?
(Or, if you can’t tell us because then the IRS and your freeloading relatives will expect to get some, too, then just give us a range, like:
A. I got paid in M&Ms.
B. I got paid in S&M
C. Less than $100K but I’m not quitting my day job
B. $100-200K, I’m taking this interview from my new jacuzzi tub in MY NEW HOUSE SUCKA
D. $200-300K and people say blogging doesn’t make you money but it got me a book deal MUWAHAHAHAHAHA
E. More than $300K. Please don’t hate but I’m now so rich and famous that I had to head-hunt one ofGuy Kawasaki’s interns to take this interview for me. I’m surfing as we speak.)
Erin Doland: Unless you’re Dan Brown, in this economy, the correct answer is C.
11. HOLY HESSENFEFFER*! You got THAT much?! Clearly, it was time for the happy dance. What were your dance moves?
Erin Doland: I did do a happy dance. How did you know? Do you have video cameras in my house??
12. Is there video of this alleged dance and, if so, is anyone currently blackmailing you with the footage?
Erin Doland: I’ll pay whatever it takes for those videos not to be released onto YouTube. Call me. We’ll set a time and place for a drop off.
13. What is your book called, when is it coming out, and how can we get it?
Erin Doland: UNCLUTTER YOUR LIFE IN ONE WEEK. It came out November 3, 2009 and it’s available at every major retailer.
Bonus Question:
After your book deal was signed and during the book-writing process, did your editor ever force you to sleep in her office for weeks just to get a semi-coherent draft out of you?
(It happened to Elizabeth Wurtzel, or perhaps more accurately, to her editor. There may have been illegal substances involved. You don’t have to answer this but please do.)
Erin Doland: No. I even turned in my manuscript ahead of schedule. My agent and editor assure me that this never happens and I violated some author’s code by not asking for an extension.
Bonus Bonus Question:
Anything I’ve missed that you think is important?
Erin Doland: Writing a book is one of the hardest things I have ever done. I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to become a published author. Truly, truly grateful.
*gratuitous Laverne and Shirley theme song reference. You know you’ve made it when you can casually work a Laverne and Shirley lyric into your writing. Book deal, schmook deal.
PS Erin, thank you so much for taking this interview. Just ignore my snarky footnotes. We both know I’m jealous.
PPS Everyone else: go now and buy Erin Doland’s book, UNCLUTTER YOUR LIFE IN ONE WEEK. Your closets will thank you. Your skeletons might not.
___________________
Here’s a list of all the pieces in the accidentally epic how-to-get-a-book deal series (with from advice from published authors to a wannabe (that’s me):
The how-to-get-a-book-deal piece, in full:
The How To Get A Book Deal Interviews, with:
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- Chris Guillebeau (Art of Non-Conformity): How To Get A Book Deal. Thirteen Questions with Chris Guillebeau.
- Erin Doland (Unclutterer): How To Get A Book Deal. Thirteen Questions with Erin Doland (of UnClutterer and Author of UnClutter Your Life in One Week)
- Danielle LaPorte (White Hot Truth): How NOT To Interview Someone
- Leo Babauta (Zen Habits): How To Get A Book Deal: 13 Questions with Zen Habit’s Leo Babauta
* I also did phone-interviews with Josh Hanagarne and Gretchen Rubin but get very, very sad when I think about doing more transcription
**My phone interview with Gretchen Rubin – in which she gave me some personal advice that really landed with me – inspired me to be a little nicer, online. Gretchen Rubin is my Jiminy Cricket.
I like Bibliophile myself. I learned that term from my bookworm wife who, as she says, “worships at the altar of flat deities of paper and binding”.
Thanks for this post…I will pass it on to my unpublished-writer-friend. He is in need of publishing.
[Reply]
Kelly Diels
replied:
on January 13th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
@Carlos Velez, oh your wife is a poet. That was gorgeous! Tell her I said so, and also that I’m going to use that phrase promiscuously and with abandon.
[Reply]
Carlos Velez
replied:
on January 13th, 2010 at 11:20 pm
@Kelly Diels,
She is glad. Thanks.
[Reply]
This lit some fires under me
Thanks!
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Excellent conversation. You both have got my fingertips twitching. Erin’s reading habit/process describes resonates–I’ve often wondered if learning to read early instilled the insatiable urge to read everything–or enabled a distillation skill.
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this is a great interview – fun, funny, informational (or, more to the point: infunmational). will there be a follow-up interview on how to do the happy dance? inquiring minds kinda want to know.
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I agree with whollyjeanne! I’m in need of knowing how to do said happy dance! Really though, this was a wonderful interview, and made me smile! Thanks for being so awesome!
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